Vettorello blasts from four-rider breakaway to win Kreiz Breizh Elites Féminin
Schoens and Malcotti complete podium in one-day French race
Giorgia Vettorello (BePink-GOLD) claimed the victory at Kreiz Breizh Elites Féminin from a four-rider breakaway. It was the first victory of the season for the 23-year-old Italian.
Quinty Schoens (Parkhotel Valkenburg) trailed six seconds later for second, while Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health) took third.
The fourth rider from the lead group, Debora Silvestri (Laboral Kutxa Fundación Euskadi), slipped out in the final right-hand corner less than a kilometre to the finish, which disrupted Malcotti, who was behind her at the time. The Human Powered Health rider went off the road but her charge to the finish went into chase mode. Silvestri managed to remount and finish fourth, 20 seconds ahead of the 15-rider chase group.
The 139km one-day race began in Calac and after 100km began six hilly local laps around Pabu for a stiff uphill drag to the line.
The quartet of riders broke free with two full finishing circuits to go and held an advantage of less than 20 seconds in front of a reduced peloton. With 15km to go, Malcotti, Schoens, Silvestri and Vettorello kept working together on that penultimate circuit, Malcotti upping the pace with 12km to go.
On the final lap, Malcotti continued to be the most aggressive in the quartet of leaders. The chase of 26 riders was not very organised, as the relentless climbing on the circuit wearing down legs, and that group broke apart and never made contact as the breakaway increased its lead to 50 seconds in the closing kilometres.
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Jackie has been involved in professional sports for more than 30 years in news reporting, sports marketing and public relations. She founded Peloton Sports in 1998, a sports marketing and public relations agency, which managed projects for Tour de Georgia, Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and USA Cycling. She also founded Bike Alpharetta Inc, a Georgia non-profit to promote safe cycling. She is proud to have worked in professional baseball for six years - from selling advertising to pulling the tarp for several minor league teams. She has climbed l'Alpe d'Huez three times (not fast). Her favorite road and gravel rides are around horse farms in north Georgia (USA) and around lavender fields in Provence (France), and some mtb rides in Park City, Utah (USA).
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