Mathieu Ladagnous (FDJ) continued a fantastic season by taking his first win in 2013 in today's French one-day race Boucles de l'Aulne. By finishing two seconds ahead of Yannick Martinez (La Pomme Marseille) and Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne), he took the 16th win of his FDJ team on French soil this season to continue a crushing domination by the white-clad team.

Having finished 5th in the Ronde van Vlaanderen and 6th in the Gent-Wevelgem, Matthieu Ladagnous was one of the most solid performers in the cobbled classics this year. After a short mid-season break he returned to competition this weekend and he immediately showed that he is enjoying some of the best form of his life.

Having finished 6th on Saturday in the GP de Plumelec-Morbihac, the Frenchman came out triumphant in the second of the weekend's two races, the Boucles de l'Aulne - races that are often used to gauge the form of the French teams ahead of the Criterium du Dauphine. The win was the 16th of the FDJ team in France this year and the French calendar has been totally dominated by the clover team.

Having been on the attack early on, Ladagnous saved his energy in the peloton for most of the day while four of his teammates joined the day's early break. Arnaud Courteille, Alexandre Geniez, Benoit Vaugrenard and Arthur Vichot joined up with Julien El Fares and Remi Pauriol (Sojasun), Florian Guillou (Bretagne), Yoann Paillot (La Pomme Marseille), Anthony Charteau and Kevin Reza (Europcar), Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM), Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) and Antonio Piedra (Caja Rural) to form a very strong break with a number of climbers all suited to the hilly course.

With 4 laps of the 8,1km finishing circuit still left, the break was, however, brought back and instead another big group moved ahead. Once again Geniez made up a solid FDJ representation in the move that also contained Guillaume Levarlet (Cofidis), Julien Antomarchi (La Pomme Marseille), Jonathan Fumeaux (IAM), Fabien Schmidt (Sojasun), Giovanni Bernadeau (Europcar) and Ruben Fernandez (Caja Rural).

Levarlet attacked in the final laps but was caught by an 17-rider group that had gone clear close to the finish. Ladagnous had played his cards by joining the move and with teammate Kenny Elissonde also present, the FDJ rider enjoyed some solid support.

French sprinter Bryan Coquard (Europcar) was a danger man in the group but the uphill finishing straight was perfectly suited to the powerful Ladagnous. He burst clear to take a convincing win 2 seconds ahead of the remainder of the group while Yannick Martinez and Armindo Fonseca completed the podium. Coquard had to settle for 5th.

The race is part of the season-long Coupe de France competition, and another FDJ rider, Anthony Geslin, finished 2nd in the sprint of the bunch to move himself into the lead in the individual classification while the team is of course far ahead of its rivals in the teams classification.

Result:

1. Matthieu Ladagnous 3.57.01

2. Yannick Martinez +0.02

3. Armindo Fonseca

4. Julien Fouchard

5. Bryan Coquard

6. Remi Pauriol

7. Kenny Elissonde

8. Emiel Dolfsma

9. Erwann Corbel

10. Guillaume Levarlet