The victory in this demanding race in the West of France, first and foremost. The Grand Prix Plouay is what can be determined as one of the climbers’ races and takes place in Brittanny, a place where the weather determines the race. The total amount of kilometres to be covered is 121,5, made of four 26,9 kilometre laps and one 13,9 kilometre final lap.
Each of the laps feature the steep Côte de Ty Marec with gradients exceeding 10%. At just over four kilometres from the finish line, the decisive attack might just happen there.
Marianne Vos won the previous two editions of this race. “It’s often a race for the climbers and the riders you see in the stage races and the Giro Rosa for example. They added that very steep climb a few years back which will cause the bunch to split. ”
One of the biggest rivals for a new victory for Vos comes from her own Rabo-Liv team. Anna van der Breggen is in great shape after winning the Tour of Norway. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot already won a World Cup race this year that suits the climbers. The Flèche Wallonne winner just finished the Mountain Bike World Cup in Méribel, France, and will be particularly eager to win in front of her home crowd.
But Specialized-lululemon are on a high after winning the team time trial event in Vårgårda and the road race, with Chantal Blaak, as well. Both Tiffany Cromwell and Evelyn Stevens have been on the podium in recent years. Blaak will be very motivated after her victory in Sweden last Sunday.
Other strong riders to watch are Giant-Shimano’s Claudia Lichtenberg, Boels-Dolmans’ Megan Guarnier and Optum’s Canadian champion Leah Kirchmann. Emma Johansson will be looking to redeem herself after her home race in Sweden and Lizzie Armitstead might just want to add a little extra shine to her overall World Cup victory.
Astana-Be Pink’s Alena Amialiusik was fourth last year and this year the Belorussian champion is a candidate for the podium. She is also looking to take home the UCI climber’s jersey. At twelve points she is level pegging with Vera Koedooder but the Dutch rider won’t start in Plouay. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot is at ten points and with a total of twelve points available in the race, she is the biggest threat to the overall win in this classification for Amialiusik.
Elena Cecchini is already confirmed as best young rider this year. Iris Slappendel will ride unthreatened to the overall win in the sprinters classification because her only rival, Anna Maria Stricker (Astana-Be Pink) is not on the start list. It is fitting that the designer of this year’s UCI leader’s jerseys gets to take one home herself.
The UCI Women Road World Cup has seen eight different winners in eight events so far. Marianne Vos is happy with that statistic. “The world cup season has been great this season. I was a spectator at the first three races. Those were really great to watch, lots of attacking and good winners. It’s been a great series this year and Plouay will be a great race to end it.”
You can watch all the action live on the UCI Youtube channel or read up on all the things happening in the race on the @UCIwomencycling twitterfeed. Race highlights will be available on YouTube and on selected networks the same night. A 25-minute summary will air later on in the week.