Mavi García uncorks flurry of attacks to conquer Classic Lorient Agglomeration

Mavi García (UAE ADQ) wasn’t letting the Classic Lorient Agglomeration-Ceratizit Trophy finish in a bunch sprint Saturday.

The Spanish champ uncorked a series of attacks through the final of the hilly WorldTour race to draw out Amber Kraak (Jumbo-Visma) and blast past her young rival in a two-rider gallop.

García flourished this season despite her reaching “veteran” status.

The 38-year-old doubled the Spanish road and TT titles, finished third in the Giro Donne and slotted into 10th at the Tour de France Femmes after bouncing back from a disaster day on the gravel strewn fourth stage.

Victory on Saturday sees the Spaniard score the biggest result of an ever increasing palmarès.

The Classic Lorient Agglomeration – once known as GP Plouay – is one of the toughest in the Women’s WorldTour.

At 160km and 2,200 meters of climbing, the 20th edition of the race was relentless and riddled with attacks and splits.

Sara Martín (Movistar) was reeled in at around 30km to go after playing lone survivor from the day’s early escape.

An all-star 13-rider blew off the front and hit the final hilly 13km circuit around Plouay with around two minutes over the peloton after what had been an attritional day of racing.

García, Kraak, Audrey Cordon Ragot (Trek Segafredo), Juliette Labous (DSM), Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez Futuroscope), Blanka Vas (SD Worx), Amanda Spratt (BikeExchange), and Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) were among the dozen-plus riders that were poised to play for victory as they roared toward the final.

García squeezed the pressure and split the group in two, but the leading six never gained enough ground to go clear.

The Spanish champ kept pushing through the final climb and again forced small splits, but couldn’t prevent the sprint as Chabbey and Brown kept active in marking and countering moves.

Cordon Ragot, Spratt, and a handful more were dropped on the final climb before García and Kraak finally forced a winning move at 1500 meters to go.

The seven-rider chase group refused to co-operate and Kraak and García worked together just enough to fend off the faltering bunch behind.

The twosome dangled seconds ahead of the chasers in the wide finishing straight and Kraak was forced to lead out the sprint. García sat poised on the wheel and uncorked her acceleration at 100m to go to score victory over her Dutch rival.

Brown led home the chase group to take third.