In his 5th professional season, Jan Ghyselick (Wanty) broke his victory drought when he emerged as the strongest in today’s big French one-day race La Polynormande which counted as the 12th round of the Coupe de France race series. The Belgian was part of a 14-rider group that escaped early in the race and after having ridden away with Antoine Duchesne (Europcar) in the finale, he dropped his companion to take a solo victory.

In his first five years as a professional, Jan Ghyselinck has mostly been known a tireless domestique but today he finally got the chance to be in the spotlight when he won the 12th round of the Coupe de France, La Polynormande. The Belgian used strength and tactical savvy to come out on top from a 14-rider group that dominated the race.

In the end, he escaped with Antoine Duchesne and after the pair had worked together for a few kilometres, he dropped his Canadian companion and managed to hold off his chasers to take his first professional victory. Duchesne held on to second while Quentin Jauregui (Roubaix) won the sprint for third.

The race took place over 170.7km from Avranches to Saint-Martin-de-Landelles, with the first part being made up of 31km from the start to the finish while the main part consisted of 11 laps of a 12.7km hilly finishing circuit. The race has often been won by strong puncheurs and attackers who excel in the very uncontrollable terrain.

The race was off to a very aggressive start and it took a long time for the break to be established. Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r), Paulius Siskevicius (Marseille),  Jimmy Turgis (Roubaix), Yves Lampaert (Topsport), Florian Senechal (Cofidis), Stijn Steels (Topsport) were among the early attacked but it was the acceleration launched by Thomas Vaubourzeix (Marseille) that instigated the early break.

13 riders bridged the gap and suddenly a 14-rider front group with Hardy (Cofidis), Vaubourzeix (La Pomme Marseille 13), Ghyselinck (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Courteille (FDJ.fr), Chainel, Gaudin (AG2R La Mondiale), Steels (TopSport Vlaanderen), Duchesne (Europcar), Anyhony Delaplace, Bideau (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Delfosse (Wallonie-Bruxelles), Rossetto (BigMat-Auber 93), Jauregui (Roubaix-Lille Métropole) and Guyot (France) had escaped. Only Vino4ever and Differdange had missed the selection and they both tried to send riders across (Alexandr Sushemoin and Sven Fritsch respectively) but none of them made the junction.

The gap reached 4.05 before Cofidis started to chase, with the French team riding for Coupe de France leader Julien Simon. For a little while, they maintained the distance before they started to accelerate.

With 70km to go, the escapees started to attack each other as Guyot and Delaplace accelerated but they were both reeled in. Meanwhile, the hard pace by Cofidis had made the peloton splinter to pieces and the gap was down to less than two minutes with 51km to fo.

Rudy Barbier (Roubaix), Florian Vachon (Bretagne), Clement Saint-Martin (Marseille), Lloyd Mondory (Ag2r), Natnael Berhane (Europcar) and Pierre-Luc Perichon (Bretagne) all tried to bridged the gap but failed to make it across. Meanwhile, Chainel fell off the pace in the front group as Delplace launched another unsuccessful attack.

Europcar had now taken control in the peloton but the gap constantly remained just below the 2-minute mark. Vaubourzeix was the next rider to get dropped from the break while Delaplace launched a new attack.

The Bretagne rider stayed clear for a little while before Gaudin, Bideau and Jauregui joined him. A regrouping took place and FDJ was now leading the peloton that continued to lose ground.

As the break hit the final lap, the gap was still more than 2 minutes and so was out of contention. That’s when Ghyselinck launched his winning move that only Duchesne could join.

Jauregui and Delplace set off in pursuit but they constantly dangled 5 minutes behind the leaders. Inside the final kilometre, Ghyselinck attacked again and this time no one could match him. The Belgian held on to take a solo victory while Duchesne took second and Jauregui won the sprint for third.

The next major event in France takes place in a little more than a week when the mountainous stage race Tour de l’Ain kicks off. The next round of the Coupe de France is the Classic de l’Indre on August 24.