Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne Seche), a notable sprinter, took the win in the Tour de Vendee from a late attack, beating companions Olivier Le Gac (FDJ) and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar). Marco Minaard of Wanty took fourth as the final man from the attack.

186 riders set off in beautiful sunshine to tackle the one-day Tour de Vendee, which usually ends in a sprint but it can be won by late attacks, as riders like Pavel Brutt and Wesley Kreder have shown in recent editions. Nacer Bouhanni ensured in 2013 that the race returned to its usual format and his FDJ team set him up for a win from the bunch kick.

There were attacks from the gun and one rider broke clear 25km in, but was soon recaptured and Voralberg’s Nicolas Baldo was the next to attack. Loic Chetout of Cofidis was the first to try to bridge to Baldo.

However, the two were brought back and replaced by a new eight man lead group: Ladagnous and Le Bon of FDJ, Houle of AG2R, Bernaudeau and Pichot of Europcar, Hardy of Cofidis, Delaplace of Bretagne Seche and Vabourzeix of La Pomme Marseille.

The group gained a maximum of 45 seconds but they were eventually brought back. The pace was very high and it was a long time before another break tried again.

The next move contained Deleplace again and Thomas Voeckler of Europcar, Ferrari of Caja Rural, Reinier Honig of Vorarlberg, Pichon of FDJ, Ledanois of Bretagne, Goncalvez of La Pomme Marseille and Gaudin of AG2R joined him.

Voeckler realised the break had too many men in it and attacked himself, and gained an advantage of a minute quickly on the chase group. 141km in, he had a gap of 2’30 on the bunch. Marco Minaard of Wanty, Fonseca of Bretagne and Le Gac of FDJ went off in pursuit of Voeckler.

It took a big effort but they made it to the French star and as the race split up behind, they had a gap of 50 seconds on the small bunch, which contained just 28 men with 36km to go.

A group of 7 broke off the bunch and were 45 seconds behind the four leaders. The group of chasers were caught by the peloton, who seemed to ease up and with 15.5km to go, the break of 4 had 1’20.

The bunch looked like they’d fouled up the chase as the four men still had over a minute going into the final 10km and none of the four men missed a turn and worked excellently together. At the next time check at 5km to go, they had a minute, meaning one of Minaard, Fonseca, Voeckler and Le Gac would fight it out for the win.

Om the final lap of the finishing circuit, Voeckler put in a dig and got clear but he was brought back almost instantly, the other three men clearly aware of what was at stake.

Inside the final 2km, Olivier Le Gac attacked the group but didn’t get very far, so the four men headed under the flame rouge together.

And the fastest man on paper was Bretagne’s Armindo Fonseca and he didn’t disappoint, outsprinting Le Gac and Voeckler. Julien Simon finished ninth and came in with the bunch, meaning he wins the Coupe de France title overall.