FDJ has been almost unbeatable in the French races this year and the trend continued in today's La Tourangelle. Mickael Delage beat Benjamin Giraud (La Pomme Marseille) and Yauheni Hutarovich (Ag2r) in a bunch sprint to take the team's 11 victory this year.

When Nacer Bouhanni won the Val d'Ille Classic on March 31, he signalled the start of what has been an impressive run of success for the FDJ team on French soil. Two stage victories in the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe and wins in the one-day races Paris-Camembert, GP de Denain and  the Tro Bro Leon followed and today Mickael Delage made it 7 triumph in 3 weeks with a victory in the La Tourangelle.

Delage proved that his team is not totally reliant on its star sprinters Nacer Bouhanni and Arnaud Demare as he emerged as the fastest in the bunch sprint that ended a very aggressive and entertaining race on the rolling course. Benjamin Giraud and Yauheni Hutarovich were there closest challengers to the man who is usually the final lead-out main for Demare.

The victory comes as a relief for the loyal domestique who had failed to win a single race in his first 8 seasons as a professional. His victory is another example of the momentum which keeps building as soon as a team starts to gets some success.

A 3-man break goes clear

The 195km race was held on an undulating course around the city of Tours and took in a number of smaller climbs in the terrain known from the final part of the Paris-Tours classic. It was always expected that the race would be a tight battle between attackers and the sprinters' teams.

After 12km of racing Thomas Rostollan (La Pomme Marseille) attacked and he was later joined by Vincent Canard (Bridgestone Anchor) and Flavien Dassonville (BigMat-Auber 93). The trio were allowed to build up a gap of almost 4 minutes before Ag2r and Androni started to chase. The two teams wanted to bring it back for a bunch sprint for their fast men Hutarovich and Mattia Gavazzi respectively.

The gap started to come down quickly and as the peloton hit some undulating terrain after 70km of racing, the bunch split up. At that point the advantage fell below the minute mark and Sebastien Turgot (Europcar) and Vegard Staeke Laengen (Bretagne) tried to bridge across to the escapess. They were, however, unsuccessful and as the peloton came back together, the main group calmed down and the gap once again started to grow.

Ag2r and Androni once again start to chase

This time it almost reached 5 minutes before Ag2r and Androni upped the pace. The fast tempo quickly reduced the gap to less than a minute and with 49km remaining, Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar) managed to bridge across to the front group.

For a number of kilometres the 4-man breakaway battled the peloton led by Ag2r, Androni and Roubaix and they kept an advantage at around the 30-seconds mark for a long time. With 33km to go, they got reinforcement from behind as Gediminas Bagdonas (Ag2r), Giairo Ermeti (Androni) and Pierre-Luc Perichon (Bretagne) caught up from behind.

With Ag2r and Androni now represented in the break, the peloton stepped off the gas and the gap once again grew to more than a minute. However, FDJ took up the responsibility and with 21km to go, they had brought it all back together.

A 10-rider break goes clear

That was just the signal for new attacks to go off the front and with 15km to go, Julian Kern (Ag2r), Morgan Lamoisson (Europcar), Sebastien Turgot (Europcar), Julien El Fares (Sojasun), Fabien Schmidt (Sojasun), Jean-Luc Delpech (Bretagne), Antonio Piedra (Caja Rural), Marcos Garcia (Caja Rural), Dmitri Le Boulch (BigMat-Auber), Yannick Martinez (La Pomme Marseille), Julien Duval (Roubaix) and Sacha Weber (Differdange) created a 10-rider break.

Turgot was on fire today and as the group was about to get caught, he once again went on the attack. He soloed off and the peloton had to chase hard behind to get back last year's Paris-Roubaix runner-up.

Inside the final kilometers, the bunch succeeded and it was all back together for a big bunch sprint. Ag2r had hoped to get a reward for their hard work all day but Hutarovich ended up being denied by Delage in the final dash to the line

Result

1. Michael Delage

2. Benjamin Giraud

3. Yauheni Hutarovich

4. Omar Bertazzo

5. Cyril Lemoine

6. Fabien Schmidt

7. Julien El Fares

8. Marcos Garcia

9. Sebastien Turgot

10. Angelo Tulik