Paul Lapeira takes first victory as French national champion at La Polynormande

Decathlon-Ag2r-La Mondiale team's cyclist Paul Lapeira celebrates on the podium after winning first place in the Elite road men French championships race, next to Lidl trek's 2nd placed Julien Bernard (L) and Total Energies' 3rd placed Thomas Gachignard, in Saint-Martin-de-Landelles, western France, on June 23, 2024. France will have four riders - the maximum allowed - at the start of the road cycling road race of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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Results

Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) delivered a decisive win from a three-man attack in the final kilometres of La Polynormande.

The French national champion beat Pascal Eenkhoorn (Lotto Dstny) and Brieuc Rolland (Groupama-FDJ) in the final sprint, after Lapeira attacked the remnants of the day’s main breakaway within the final 8km of the northern French race.

The breakaway rode solidly through the day and sat on a two-minute gap to the main peloton with 40km of racing remaining. Within the final 20km it was clear that the win would come from this group, with only a brief bridging effort of five riders – Mathijs Paasschens (Lotto Dstny), Brent Van Moer (Lotto Dstny), Matis Louvel (Arkéa Samsic), Axel Zingle (Cofidis), Alexandre Delettre (St. Michel–Mavic–Auber93) – threatening to upset their lead.

Peter Stuart has been the editor of Cyclingnews since March 2022, overseeing editorial output across all of Cyclingnews' digital touchpoints.

Before joining Cyclingnews, Peter was the digital editor of Rouleur magazine. Starting life as a freelance feature writer, with bylines in The Times and The Telegraph, he first entered cycling journalism in 2012, joining Cyclist magazine as staff writer. Peter has a background as an international rower, representing Great Britain at Under-23 level and at the Junior Rowing World Championships.