On Friday afternoon, CULT Energy Pro Cycling participated in the 197 kilometer long one-day race Route Adelie de Vitré in the Western part of the country often affected by hard wind and cold showers in the early part of the season. A breakaway was unleashed from the start of race but it didn’t last.

The first part of the course consisted of 6 laps on a 21 kilometer long and hilly circuit and the remaining part brought the peloton to an 8.9 kilometer circuit. The front group contained 6 riders but they were never really out of sight of the peloton and with 25 kilometers to go, they were back in the pack. In the counter-attack, CULT Energy’s Christian Mager was suddenly alone in the front of the race being chased by a pack of hungry sprint teams.

A group of eleven riders bridged across to the German CULT Energy rider in a new front group that lasted until the final 500 meters of the race where the peloton finally caught them. In the hectic bunch sprint, Romain Feillu (Bretagne) was the fastest ahead of former French national champion Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis).

“It was a tough, cold and rainy day in France and the sprinters eyed the bunch sprint from the get-go. As the first break was caught both Gustav (Larsson) and Christian (Mager) were in counter-attacks and Christian was swept up in the final kilometer. So once again, we got a smell of the victory but unfortunately, we still need that last bit of luck,” says DS Luke Roberts,

CULT Energy Pro Cycling’s Russell Downing finished 13th.