Lorrenzo Manzin (FDJ) confirmed that he has a huge potential as a future top sprinter when he won La Roue Tourangelle which is an important part of the Coupe de France race series. After a wet day in the saddle, his FDJ teammates brought back a dangerous four-rider group in the finale before the young sprinter held off Clement Venturini (Cofidis) and Jan Dieteren (Leopard) in the 30-rider sprint to take his first pro win.

Going into the 2015 season, FDJ lost sprinter Nacer Bouhanni to Cofidis but they were intent on finding a replacement to supplement Arnaud Demare in the bunch sprints. Hence, they signed the two promising youngster Marc Sarreau and Lorrenzo Manzin and promised to give them lots of chances in their first pro year.

The French team have lived up to their words as both riders have had several chances in the first part of the season. Despite promising showing mainly from Sarreau, however, they have always come up short.

Today they broke the ice and it was Manzin who took the first victory for the two talents. The Frenchman emerged as the fastest in a very important race on the French calendar as he won the bunch sprint at the end of La Roue Tourangelle which is part of the season-long Coupe de France race series.

All day the team showed its intentions in the rainy conditions as they worked hard in the very fast opening phase under a rainy sky to make sure that a big, dangerous group didn’t get clear. When the early break was formed, they even had David Boucher in the group and so could take a back seat while Ag2r were forced to work.

The front quartet were caught with 30km to go and the scene was set for attacks on the late climbs. However, Europcar took control of the race and made sure that no one managed to get a bigger gap and instead it was an elimination race, with crashes and rain taking its toll on the bunch until only 30 riders were left after the passage of the final climb with less than 10km to go.

Surprisingly, Europcar sprinter Thomas Boudat went on the attack and as he was joined by 3 riders, a dangerous move had taken off with less than 5km to go. This forced FDJ into action and they did a splendid work to bring it back together. They still had enough left in the tank to lead Manzin out ad he managed to hold off Clement Venturini and Jan Dieteren to lead a podium that was made up of young talented sprinters.

Pierrick Fedrigo (Bretagne) didn’t make it into the top 10 but he defended his lead in the Coupe de France. The series now takes a small break before the actions reumes at the GP de Plumelec on May 30. The next major event in France is the Grand Prix la Somme next Sunday.

An undulating course

The 2015 La Roue Tourangelle was held on a 199km course that brought the riders from Chateaurenault to Tours. The riders mostly had to tackle rolling terrain with seven categorized climbs. Four of them came inside the final 50km. In the finale, the riders would tackle 3 climbs in quick succession, with the Cote de l’Epan coming just 10km from the finish. From there it was flat all the way to the finish in Tours.

Quentin Jauregui (Ag2r) attacked right after the riders had taken the start under a grey sky with light rain and little wind. Meanwhile, his teammate Christophe Riblon already stepped off the bike.

Lamoisson gets clear

The Frenchman was quickly brought back and while many riders fought their way back from punctures, two riders tried a move, they were brought back too and the attacking continued for a while.

Morgain Lamoisson (Europcar) managed to get a gap and after 20km of racing, he was 15 seconds ahead. He extended it to 30 seconds but as FDJ started to chase they brought the Frenchman back after he had won the intermediate sprint ahead of Yannick Eckmann (Roth Skoda) and Lukas Löer (Kuota).

The break takes off

The peloton continued to ride extremely fast but Kenny Elissonde (FDJ) stilled tried to attack. However, he was quickly brought back by FDJ and a 10-rider break didn’t have any luck either.

Fabien Canal (Armee) was the next to get a small gap but he was quickly brought back at the end of a first hour during which 45.2km were covered. Next Antoinie Demoitie (Wallone), Dieter Bouvry (Roubaix) and David Boucher (FDJ) attacked and while Dries Hollanders (Metec) took off in pursuit, the peloton finally slowed down.

Ag2r take control

Hollanders managed to join the leaders who were 2.45 ahead after 50km of racing. Meanwhile, it started to rain heavily and the gap went out to more than 3 minutes.

The escapees responded well to an acceleration in the peloton and kept the gap at 3.10 while Ag2r led the chase. Moments later Hollanders led Bouvry and Demoitie over the top of the first climb.

The peloton accelerates

The peloton accelerated and at the 85km mark, they had brought the gap down to 2.45. At this point, Demoitie had to fight his way back to the break from a puncture.

Bouvry beat Boucher and Demoitie in the next intermediate sprint but they still lost ground. When Hollanders led Bouvry and Demoitie over the top of the next climb, the gap was 2.10.

The peloton splits up

Hollanders, Bouvry and Boucher were first at the next climb as Ag2r had now slowed down and allowed the gap to reach 2.50. That was the signal for them to hit the gas though and with 56km to go, it was only 1.20.

Many riders had now been dropped from the peloton which was riding very fast as they entered the hilly finale. On the Cote de Becelliere, Boucher and Hollanders were dropped from the break but the FDJ rider managed to rejoin the leaders at a point when the peloton was 1.05 behind.

The break is caught

Hollanders was brought back as the peloton continued to ride fast and with 33km to go, the gap was only 30 seconds. On the next climb, Boucher and Demoitie got dropped but the latter managed to briefly rejoin Bouvry before it all came back together with 30km to go.

Two riders briefly managed to get clear but it was the next move by Thomas Boudat (Europcar), Julien El Fares (Marseille) and Quentin Pacher (Armee) that looked promising. They got a gap of 20 seconds but as they hit the penultimate climb with 13km to go, it was back together.

Boudat takes off

A crash split the peloton and so only 30 riders were left when they hit the Cote de l’Epan. It was now 3 Europcar riders setting the pace before Alexandre Blain (Marseille) moved up to lead Tony Hurel and Boudat (Europcar) over the top.

A new crash allowed Boudat to get a small gap and he was joined by 3 riders inside the final 5km. However, FDJ brought it all back together for a sprint where Manzin took his first pro win.