The 258km race was our team’s penultimate appearance of the season on French soil.
Bretagne Classic marked the return of Fausto Masnada, who after a nagging sore saddle injury, made his first outing with the Wolfpack since the month of May and even put in a probing attack in the final 50 kilometers, hoping to open up the race.
The Italian was brought back by the peloton, but Soudal Quick-Step continued to remain active, and Julian Alaphilippe launched two accelerations of his own when the road went up before the final lap of the hilly circuit around Plouay. The others reacted again and the bunch remained as one until the last 15 kilometers, when a small group escaped and rode to the finish, where Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) took the victory.
Julian was our first rider home, coming over the line together with the peloton, at the final French World Tour race of the season, from where he will now travel to Canada for the two events there, in Quebec and Montreal, respectively, which will be held next weekend.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
Julian Alaphilippe 
