Takelast week
Elisa Balsamo ended Mischa Bredewold's three-year reign at Classic Lorient Agglomération not by breaking her but by out-sprinting her from her own wheel. Bredewold used the downhill into the finish to launch her sprint early; Balsamo sat in the slipstream and came around in the last 100 metres.
The 2026 course added Côte de Ty Marrec five kilometres from the line and roughly 2,800 metres of climbing over 172.6 km — enough to invite an attacking finale after two laps of attacks. Instead the group stayed together and it still came down to a reduced sprint, the same finish that had delivered Bredewold's last three titles. Franziska Koch took third. The harder route didn't change the outcome type, just the identity of who timed the effort better.
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