Having recently shined in the American races, Ben Hermans again made use of his good form when he finished 7th in the GP Plouay. The Belgian regretted having started his sprint too early after having been in the perfect position on the wheel of eventual winner Sylvain Chavanel.

Ben Hermans sprinted to a seventh-place finish for the BMC Racing Team Sunday at GP Ouest-France Plouay after being part of a late breakaway. Hermans and five others followed an attack by Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) in the last 35 kilometers of the 229.1-km race that comprised laps of a 27-km circuit.

The leading group re-shuffled inside the final kilometers when Tim Wellens (Lotto Belisol) attacked several times, but Hermans remained in front.

"It was important for us to make the breakaway and good to have representation in the front," BMC Racing Team Sport Director Yvon Ledanois said.

Hermans said he did not believe the group would make it to the finish.

"With the peloton you have a lot of advantage on this parcours," he said. "They also started attacks at 10 km to go, so I knew it would be difficult. On the last climb, the front of the peloton caught us at 4 km to go. But I went again in the moves with six guys."

Hermans led out the sprint, but Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) took the win from Matteo Fedi (Neri Sottoli) and Arthur Vichot (FDJ.fr). The peloton arrived two seconds later.

"I knew I had to look for Chavanel," Hermans said. "So I had his wheel, but he started to brake at 300 meters from the finish. I was scared to lose speed and get surprised from behind. I had good legs at that moment so I started sprinting. But it was too early because the others came out of my slipstream just before the finish. I am a little disappointed about my sprint, but I guess I did the race how I had to do it."