Sunday 20 September 2015 at 19h07

The 69th edition of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues took place under a bright blue sky today, starting at the end of the morning, for a bit over 200 kilometers on the roads of the north of France. While several breakaways animated the race, the victory was finally decided in a bunch sprint and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) was the one who won it.

The rider of the team which is based in the Nord department also took the lead in the individual classification of the Coupe de France PMU (of which the Grand Prix d'Isbergues was the forelast race), passing upfront Baptiste Planckaert (Roubaix Lille Métropole) and Pierrick Fédrigo (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) who led the classification before this race!

The summary of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues 2015

Without the last winner - Arnaud Démare (FDJ), who won the race in the French Champion jersey - at the start, he could not take a third victory in a row and all the sprinters who came to the start of this race were thus dreaming of a possible race victory after the 204.1 kilometers on the programme.

A group of 4 riders, joined by 2 others, formed the first breakaway of the day, with Kévin Reza (FDJ), Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Axel Domont (AG2R La Mondiale), Sander Helven (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), David Menut (Auber 93) and Evaldas Siskevicius (Marseille 13-KTM) (photo on the right). We're still in the first local laps of 7 kilometers around Isbergues at that time, and after 24 kilometers, the gap of this group reaches one minute after having remained stable at around 30 seconds during quite some time.

The gap temporarily dropped back under 30 seconds but it's again up to 45 seconds when the riders finish the lap which visits Aire-sur-la-Lys and are ready to attack the big lap. When the Bretagne-Séché Environnement and Wallonie-Bruxelles teams take the lead in the peloton, the gap rapidly goes down and the first breakaway gets taken back by the peloton.

After a solo attempt by Amund Groendahl Jansen (Team Joker), there were again 4 riders who got away from the peloton, Ignatas Konovalovas (Marseille 13-KTM), Mickael Delage (FDJ), Antwan Tolhoek (stagiaire at Tinkoff-Saxo) and Perrig Quemeneur (Team Europcar) (photo on the left) and they rapidly created a gap which went up to 2'50".

At about mid-race, Guillaume Levarlet (Auber 93) attacked, and was joined by Thomas Damuseau (Roubaix Lille Metropole) and Romain Combaud (Equipe Cycliste de l'Armée de Terre) and finally also Jimmy Engoulvent (Team Europcar). At kilometer 118, these 4 riders joined the breakaway and formed a new leading group of 8 riders which saw its gap on the peloton temporarily go up to 1'35".

Perrig Quemeneur was the first rider who payed for his efforts in today's breakaway and the rider of Team Europcar was first dropped by the breakaway and then also by the peloton.
The other riders were not rewarded for their efforts either because at 41 kilometers from the finish, this second breakaway of the day was also taken back by the peloton.

Approaching the last laps around Isbergues (on the same circuit of 7 kilometers as at the start), Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) and Sander Helven (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) were the last riders to try to end the race in a breakaway. In the forelast lap, Helven left his place to Philip Lindau (Team Joker) but in the last kilometers of the race, this last leaders duo was also taken back and it was thus time to prepare a bunch sprint!

The Cofidis team got ready to deliver its sprinter, Nacer Bouhanni, first on the finish line and managed to do so, apparently quite easily, and Bouhanni thus won this race.

The classification of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues 2015

Hereunder you'll find the top 10 of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues 2015:

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis, solutions crédits) - 4h37'45"
2/ Michal Kolar (Tinkoff-Saxo)
3/ Shane Archbold (Bora-Argon 18)
4/ Baptiste Planckaert (Roubaix Lille Métropole)
5/ Roy Jans (Wanty-Groupe Gobert)
6/ Jonas Vangenechten (IAM Cycling)
7/ Marc Sarreau (FDJ)
8/ Romain Feillu (Bretagne-Séché Environnement)
9/ André Looij (Roompot Oranje Peloton)
10/ Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale)

The classification of the Coupe de France PMU

Before this forelast race of the Coupe de France PMU 2015, Pierrick Fédrigo (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) was leading its individual classification. With his victory in this race, Nacer Bouhanni however took over this first place and Fédrigo even dropped back under Baptiste Planckaert (Roubaix Lille Métropole) who finished 4th in this race.

Here's the top 10 of this classification:

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis, solutions crédits) - 178 points
2/ Baptiste Planckaert (Roubaix Lille Métropole) - 154 points
3/ Pierrick Fédrigo (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) - 151 points
4/ Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) - 103 points
5/ Julien Loubet (Team Marseille 13-KTM) - 91 points
6/ Alexandre Geniez (FDJ) - 80 points
7/ Maxime Renault (Auber 93) - 69 points
8/ Romain Feillu (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) - 65 points
9/ Lorenzo Manzin (FDJ) - 62 points
10/ Julien Simon (Cofidis, solutions crédits) - 60 points

The video of the finish of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues 2015

Here's the video of the finish of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues as published by the Ligue Nationale de Cyclisme:

The photos and videos of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues 2015

The photos of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues 2015 are published in the dedicated photo album:

>> The photos of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues 2015

A summary video of the Grand Prix d'Isbergues 2015 will be published next week.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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