Wiestra Keeps Vacansoleil Morale High

Classic Loire Atlantique: La Haye-Fouassière 184.9km

Lieuwe Westra kept up the great start to the season for Vacansoleil with a victory in the newlyupgraded Classic Loire Atlantique. For the first time in its 10 year history this tough FrenchCup race enjoyed UCI 1.1 status.

With no flat roads to speak of on its parcours, any rider who wins this race has to be a man in form.

The prelude to the final break formed with 35km to go with Westra having Anthony Geslin (FDJ), Jean-Marc Marino (Saur-Sojasun) and Frédéric Amorison (Landbouwkrediet) for company. At 13kmto go Europcar launched a counter offensive to try and put Thomas Voeckler into a race winningposition, he wasn't allowed to go it alone and Voekcler, Laurent Mangel (Saur-Sojasun). A group of five with Serguey Lagutin (Vacansoleil-DCM), Bert Scheirlinckx (Landbouwkrediet), Julien Antomarchi and Yohan Cauquil (La Pomme-Marseille) and Arnoud Van Groen (Vérandas Willems) joined with 4km to go.
Scheirlinckx went first, but the inform Dutchman countered and caught him with 300m to gofor a well deserved victory.

Full Results 1 Lieuwe Westra (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 4:31:45  2 Bert Scheirlinckx (Bel) Landbouwkrediet 0:00:02  3 Yohan Cauquil (Fra) Velo-Club La Pomme Marseille 0:00:09  4 Toms Skujinš (Lat) Velo-Club La Pomme Marseille 0:00:16  5 Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:00:22  6 Anthony Geslin (Fra) FDJ  7 Frédéric Amorison (Bel) Landbouwkrediet  8 Laurent Mangel (Fra) Saur - Sojasun  9 Arnoud Van Groen (Ned) Veranda's Willems - Accent  10 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar