After yesterday’s time trial, the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe returned to the road today. The 190,3 km course began in Angers and ended in Pré-en-Pail.

“We really wanted to try for the stage with today. We wanted to win here in Sarthe like the rest of the team is winning in Spain in Belgium.  The course was not so hard but we had some short climbs of 1 kilometer. When there was a potentially dangerous attack at some 30 km from the finish, I saw my chance in that group with Jan Bakelants, especially since the team of the race leader didn't seem to care about it. In the end they did react but almost too late,” said Tiago Machado to the Katusha website.

“We were just caught at 1,5 kilometer from the finish. I still felt good and I stayed in the wheels and was even able to take a nice top ten spot.  A logical result maybe as my condition was already very well in Paris – Nice. I was really disappointed that I had to abandon due to the cold but the condition is still there and I like this race. I have good memories of this race as I won here a stage in my first year as a WorldTour rider."

He earned sixth place on Thursday’s stage behind winner Manuele Boaro of Tinkoff-Saxo. The podium was rounded out with Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and Jonathan Hivert of Bretagne-Séché Environnement. Boaro also holds the lead in the classification by 3-seconds. Machado is fourth at six-seconds from the leader.

Team Katusha’s Vladimir Isaychev was part of an early break that built up a gap of five minutes. It was the move started by Bakelants that ended up neutralizing the break and setting up the next group to go clear with Machado part of the action. Friday brings the final stage of the 2015 Circuit Cycliste Sarthe.