A few days after winning the mountains jersey at the Tour de Wallonie, Baptiste Planckaert (Wallonie) continued his breakthrough season by taking his second Coupe de France victory in the tough La Polynormande. The Belgian emerged as the fastest in the uphill sprint where he held off Ryan Anderson (Direct Energie) and Julien Duval (Armee) while Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2r) finished fourth and so retained the overall lead in the French series.

When he joined Landbouwkrediet in 2010, Baptiste Planckaert was a promising sprinter but he failed to achieve any major results during his four years at the pro level. Hence, there was no room for him in the professional field when his team folded at the end of the 2013 season and he had to step down to continental level.

However, Planckaert refused to give up and he has steadily progressed. During his two years at the Roubaix team, he gradually developed into one of the most consistent sprinters in the French races but it is the 2016 season that has really proved the full extent of his potential.

Riding for the Wallonie team, Planckaert has been unstoppable in the first part of the year. He won the Tour de Normandie overall and finished second to teammate Olivier Pardini at the Circuit des Ardennes. Furthermore, consistent placings in the Coupe de France meant that he quickly took the overall lead in the prestigious series and he extended it when he won the Tour du Finistere in the middle of April.

Riding for a Belgian team, Planckaert had to skip the GP Plumelec and Boucles de l’Aulne to do the Belgium Tour and this cost him his first place as Samuel Dumoulin won both races. However, Planckaert is now back in contention as he significantly reduced his deficit by winning today’s La Polynormande, the first race in the series after a two-month break.

Planckaert had already shown his form at the Tour de Wallonie where he won the mountains jersey and today he confirmed that he will be a force to be reckoned with in every event this autumn. In the race that was Nacer Bouhanni’s comeback after his hotel altercation, the Belgian was the fastest in the uphill sprint at the end of a tough, selective race.

The 37th edition of La Polynormande was held on the well-known 157km course that has been used for several years. From the start in Avranches the riders covered 31km to the finish in Saint-Martin-de-Landelles where they tacklde the key climb of Cote de la Pigeonniere for the first time after 24.5km of racing. Then they did 11 laps of a 12.5km circuit that included the climb 6.5km from the finish. From there, the road was slightly descending until just 2km remained where the riders hit the final rise to the finish.

The riders had excellent conditions when they gathered for the start and as it is the case in every Coupe de France race, it was a very aggressive opening phase. A Ringeriks-Kraft rider attacked straight from the gun but he was brought back almost immediately and instead 15 riders got away. They didn’t have any luck either and the subsequent solo attacks from Alliaume Leblond (Differdange) and Romain Feillu (Auber 93) didn’t work out either.

After 30 minutes of racing, Olivier Le Gac (FDJ), Flavien Dassonville, Pierre Gouault (HP BTP-Auber 93), Antoine Warnier (Wallonie - Brussels) and Giorgio Bocchiola (Bottecchia D'Amico) got a 15-second advantage but they were brought back before the first KOM sprint which Johan Le Bon (FDJ) won ahead of Daniel Diaz (Delko) and Gouault. Those three riders managed to escape and were joined by Tom Dernies (Wallonie) before they crossed the line for the first time. Yann Guyot (Armee) took off in pursuit but he never made it acrosse.

While the peloton took it easy and allowed the gap to go out to 1.30, Kevin Lebreton (Armee) tried to bridge across. Ag2r hit the front with three riders but they were not chasing yet and the gap was 2.20 at the end of the second hour first hour during which 43.4km were completed. Meanwhile, Lebreton approached from behind and he was just 30 seconds behind at the 50km mark and this prompted the escapees to wait for him.

At the end of the second lap, the peloton was 3 minutes behind the five escapees and it was still Ag2r in control. They let the gap hover between 3.00 and 3.30 and then slowly started to bring the break back. At the end of the fourth lap and a second hour at an average speed of 37km/h, the gap was down to 2.30.

The break lost some momentum when they had to wait for Dernies who suffered a puncture and so the gap was down to 2.50 just before the end of the fifth lap. However, they managed to push it out to 2.30 where Ag2r kept it stable.

With five laps to go, the French team finally upped the pace and at the end of the third hour during which 40.7km were covered, the escapees were only 1.35 ahead. That was the signal for the attacks to start and as they started the 8th lap, Anthony Delaplace, Jonathan Hivert (Fortuneo-Vital Concept), and Marco Minnaard (Wanty) tried to bridge the gap. The trio soon gained a minute on the peloton and they were just 35 behind when they approached the finish for the next time.

Le Bon attacked from the breakaway and was joined by Gouault but the quintet was back together as they started the ninth lap. At the passage of the line, the chasers were 25 seconds behind while the peloton was at 1.05. At the same time, Ag2r were losing firepower as Francois Bidard and Hubert Dupont ended their work.

The three chasers made the junction on the next lap but the peloton was only 40 seconds behind at this point. They were now accelerating hard and in just a few kilometres, they brought the escapees back.

The fast pace took its toll as the peloton split into several groups and it was only a reduced field that started the penultimate lap in the lead. Just after the passage of the line, Yoann Offredo (FDJ) tried to get away but he didn’t have any luck. Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis), Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2r) and Baptiste Planckaert (Wallonie) were still well-placed but Leonardo Duque (Delko) was among the sprinters to have been dropped.

Marc Fournier (FDJ) and Guaillaume Martin (Wanty) were the next to try and they managed to build an advantage of 30 seconds as they started the final lap. However, Cofidis were now working hard for Bouhanni and they kept the pair under control.

As they hit the climb for the final time, Martin attacked and immediately dropped Fournier who fell back to the peloton. Instead, Felix Pouilly (Roubaix) tried to bridge across but he had no luck in his mission.

Martin duck deep and crested the summit as the lone leader with a 15second advantage over the peloton. However, he was brought back and so it all came down to a tough uphill sprint. Here Planckaert proved his class by beating Ryan Anderson and Julien Duval (Armee) to take the fourth win of the 2016 season.

Samuel Dumoulin finished fourth and so retained the overall lead in the Coupe de France. However, Planckaert reduced his deficit from 38 to 8 points as they head into the next round, GP de Fourmies, which will be held on September 4. The next major event in France is the Tour de l’Ain which starts on August 9.