33rd Tro-Bro Léon - 17-04-16

[luckyboy]

We all know the story now - the Breton race, with the dirt farm roads (ribinoù), the corrugated iron tunnels and the piglet prize. 203km in the far north-west of Brittany.

Here's a photo gallery from the Grubers (2013 I think) and what I wrote about it last year, interviews with the organiser and Périchon.

Startlist
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Tro-Bro_Leon_2016_Startlist
All the French teams + Wanty, One Pro, Roth, Euskadi-Murias, Cycling Academy and some others.

Ex-winners Samuel Dumoulin, Francis Mourey, Alexandre Geniez are here. Cobbled guys like Sylvain Chavanel, Florian Sénéchal, Damien Gaudin, Sébastien Turgot, Petit here too.

Local guys include Johan Le Bon, Franck Bonnamour, Perrig Quéméneur, Laurent Pichon, Olivier Le Gac and they will fight for the piglet.

But the past few years the highest rider for Fortuneo/Bretagne have won the piglet even if they weren't from Brittany - Jarrier & Périchon won it the last two years and they're from Le Mans and Bourg-en-Bresse.

Previous winners
2015 | GENIEZ Alexandre
2014 | PETIT Adrien
2013 | MOUREY Francis
2012 | ROTH Ryan
2011 | JEROME Vincent
2010 | ROY Jérémy

CyclingHub have said that they will be streaming it so no reason not to watch - https://twitter.com/CyclingHubTV/status/721445695396425728

Here's last years edition - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6aQfM01Uhw

And some onboard footage from Jérémy Roy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6zsLRXh9Ks

 

[togo95]

Thanks for the nice opening post. Hopefully the broadcast will work well, at least like last year.

This is the race to watch on Sunday guys, it's among the best every year. Looks like the startlist is fairly strong too, I am going with Petit or Sénéchal ftw, although Geniez looks strong now too.

 

[Taxus4a]

I love this race.

 

[LugHugger]

Re:

I love this race.

Me too Marks the end of the interesting (for me) races of the season though

Still, only 5 months until the 'cross season starts

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

I've got 5 favorites aswell: Geniez, Sénéchal, Vanbilsen, Pardini and Mourey

 

[DNP-Old]

This race deserves a better startlist. It has the same potential as Strade Bianche really, though there's a lot less hype. Therefore it'd be a good idea to not race in the same weekend as AGR and whatnot.

 

[BalearicBeats]

Baptiste to continue his winning streak?

How come Dan Craven has the piglet in that picture? He's not exactly from the region nor did he win.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Disastrous startlist unfortunately. Hopefully this race will get more popular at some point.

 

[seldon71]

Love this race. Any idea of a stream (free or paid one) available in Finland? CyclingTV is useless for us Europeans. Steephill doesn't list anything for this race...

 

[trevim]

This race should be held on the Wednesday between Flanders and Roubaix, so that decent riders never had to ride Scheldprijs

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Baptiste to continue his winning streak?

How come Dan Craven has the piglet in that picture? He's not exactly from the region nor did he win.

Craven became obsessed with the piglet prize last year, when he discovered only one teammate was eligible for it he declared his intention to ride for them and sabotage Bréton moves solely that they could benefit from the piglet prize. The attention given to the prize as a result of Dan's tweets meant he was presented with a piglet at the start, which is where the photo that the poster is based on was taken. You can see here.

Périchon I think has some Bréton heritage in his family, not sure about Benoît Jarrier.

I think at this point Tro Bro Léon is just about everybody's favourite small one-day race, right? The problem is, rough surfaces, cobbles, mud and dirt after Roubaix are just cool-off races given Roubaix is the rouleur peak point.

 

[BigMac]

Lovely race.

 

[Scarponi]

Going to watch this over Amstel as it can be summed up in a 45 second highlight video tomorrow

 

[luckyboy]

Sylvain Chavanel + Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie), Dion Smith (One Pro), Vegard Breen (Fortuneo) in the break with around 80km to go.

CyclingHub is live in about 40 minutes

 

[Echoes]

The startlist is very good. Those who regret its weakness are fanboys. They cannot enjoy a race for itself. They need big stars ...

 

[luckyboy]

Le Bon, Planckaert, Delaplace, Duval in the front group of 11 now

 

[Scarponi]

Re:

The startlist is very good. Those who regret its weakness are fanboys. They cannot enjoy a race for itself. They need big stars ...

This the truth, while its spectacular I will admit. Having a Sagan or Canc riding away from everyone else 40km out is not always an exciting race.

 

[luckyboy]

7 riders in the break, 21 in the peloton, 14 sectors/about 60km remaining

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re:

The startlist is very good. Those who regret its weakness are fanboys. They cannot enjoy a race for itself. They need big stars ...

Come on... it's so much more important to write over 10 pages how boring AGR will be...

Looks like Johan Le Bon is really strong today.

 

[Scarponi]

Cycling HubTV says 52 minutes for me but the commentary is in the background.

Help anyone?

 

[luckyboy]

Live! on CyclingHub

 

[TMP402]

I'm surprised McLay isn't here. He was decent at Le Samyn and would have raised his performance among brother Celts.

 

[luckyboy]

Vachon (Fortuneo), Gène (Direct Énergie), Pichon + Le Bon (FDJ) joined by Planckaert (Wallonie), Minard (AG2R), and riders from Cycling Academy and One Pro

edit: Mortensen and Pete Williams are the One Pro guys. Raim from Cycling Academy and Levasseur from Armee de Terre rider too

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Commentary now saying everything about Planckaert that we've been saying for about two years now... and then he punctures as soon as they enter the next sector of ribin.

 

[Scarponi]

A rider has 45 seconds with 18 to go. Thats probably it