This morning at the team presentation he already seemed to be in good shape, singing "happy birthday" to his team mate Franck Bouyer, at the end of the afternoon the local* rider won the 36th edition of Cholet-Pays de Loire, in front of quite a numerous public in Cholet.
For once, the breakaway went on till the end and the rider of the Europcar team showed his emotion while winning this 3rd race of the Coupe de France PMU, victory which he dedicated to the parents of his biggest fan, who unfortunately died recently.
The summary of Cholet Pays de Loire 2013
The weather once again seemed to be threatening this morning at the start of the race in Cholet, where, like yesterday, some heavy grey clouds were traveling above the start of the race.Finally this turned out to be only a short rain shower which passed above the race and the rest of the race took place with a timid sun bringing some warmth to the riders. It might have been this sun which immediately motivated Marcel Wyss (IAM Cycling) to attack right from the first kilometers. What started as a solo attack rapidly became a duo when he was joined by Russel Hampton (Team Raleigh) and then it grew out to a group of 5 when Damien Gaudin (Europcar), Rein Taaramae (Cofidis solutions crédits) and Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling) also joined this breakaway.
The 5 leading riders then learned that behind them 14 riders** formed a chasing group, but that didn't discouraged them in the efforts at the head of the race and their gap thus slowly grew further. At kilometer 75 the gap was already up to 2'20" on the chasing group and 4'45" on the peloton.
This was the way almost the whole race went on, up till the 6th climb which was part of the Challenge des 10 Bosses, where the chasing groupe was taken back, except for Grégoire Tarride (La Pomme Marseille). They then still had 90 kilometers to go and it seemed to be difficult for the 5 leading riders to stay ahead until the finish. So far they had more or less been protected by the fact that in this group and in the chasing group there were riders of almost all different big teams, but the breakaway became a more important target for the peloton once the chasing group was taken back.
Russel Hampton, one of the first riders to join the breakaway initiated by Marcel Wyss, then had to let the others go and the new group of four leading riders thus had to work even harder to maintain the gap. While crossing Saint-Pierre-Montlimart, at 85 kilometers from the finish, the gap however still was 6 minutes and it even went up a little more afterwards, in the climb of the 7th hill, where Marcel Wyss took the points for the corresponding classification, just like he did on top of the 6 preceding climbs. He goes on to do the same on the 3 following hills and thus easily wins the Challenge des 10 Bosses.
When the leading group enters Beaupréau, the place where Damien Gaudin was born, their gap on the peloton still is 6'25" and even though at the first crossing of the finish line it was down to 3'30", the breakaway continues to work well together. Even though we could still have some doubts on their ability to stay away, that was actually what they did and while approaching the finish line, a 800 meters long straight line going slightly uphill, Damien Gaudin (Europcar) launched the sprint and thus won Cholet-Pays de Loire 2013!
The classifications of Cholet Pays de Loire 2013
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The classification of the race
Here's the top 10 of this 36th edition of Cholet-Pays de Loire:1/ Damien Gaudin (Europcar) - 5h12'33"
2/ Marcel Wyss (IAM Cycling) - +0'01"
3/ Rein Taaramae (Cofidis solutions crédits) - +0'03"
4/ Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling) - +0'06"
5/ Francis Mourey (FDJ) - +1'03"
6/ Dominique Rollin (FDJ) - +1'11"
7/ Pieter Jacobs (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise)
8/ Kévin Reza (Europcar)
9/ Patrick Schelling (IAM Cycling)
10/ Guillaume Levarlet (Cofidis solutions crédits)
Challenge des 10 Bosses
The King of the "Mountains" of this race thus was Marcel Wyss (IAM Cycling), at the initiative of the breakaway of the race and always upfront on the climbs. He wins this classification with no less than 48 points, out of 90 distributed in this race:1/ Marcel Wyss (IAM Cycling) - 48 points
2/ Rein Taaramae (Cofidis solutions crédits) - 22 points
3/ Damien Gaudin (Europcar) - 13 points
4/ Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling) - 2 points
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Young riders classification
The best young rider of the race was Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling):1/ Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling) - 5h12'39"
2/ Kévin Reza (Europcar) - +1'05"
3/ Patrick Schelling (IAM Cycling)
4/ Clément Koretzky (Bretagne-Séché Environnement)
5/ Evaldas Siskevicius (Sojasun) - +1'08"
by Chas over 
by Kasey over
Franck bouyer est aussi originaire de beaupreau. tout comme ma famille. lol. merci thomas pour ces infos t super!
Très belle victoire devant un nombreux public. Damien annonce que sur les classiques, il faudra compter sur lui. C'est l'homme en forme du moment.
Il a étudié les 100 derniers km avec Franck Bouyer cette semaine, et montre aujourd'hui tout son talent.
Décidément, et c'est heureux, Damien GAUDIN est en super forme. Ça promet pour les toutes prochaines grandes classiques. Il faut aussi noter l'excellente forme actuelle de Sylvain CHAVANEL.
Je note aussi les progrès constants de Rein Taaramae après une bien mauvaise période.
J'en profite pour souhaiter un prompt et complet rétablissement au malheureux Laurent JALABERT.
"P 22"
bravo to the Europcar Team ,keep it up .