Tour of Bretagne, a level test for Polartec-Kometa Continental Team
52.ª Tour of Bretagne
Bretagne (France). From 25 April to 1 May. 1,135.4 km divided into seven stages
After their recent participation in the Tour of Normandy, where they finished with two stage victories in the bag and a good image was displayed, the continental Polartec-Kometa returns to France to face a new lap by stages. Between the 25th of April to the 1st of May, the Madrid squad will compete in the 52nd edition of the Tour of Bretagne.
Twenty-four training courses will take part in the Breton event, six of which are in the professional continental category. The Polartec-Kometa, the only Spanish team in the competition, will be joined by Miguel Angel Ballesteros, Juan Camacho, Patrick Gamper (Austria), Matteo Moschetti (Italy), Michel Ries (Luxembourg) and Diego Pablo Sevilla, a squad that the organisers of the event, when they announced the presence of the team, summed up as “a homogenous group that will look for surprise”.
Ahead, as is the geography of Bretagne, seven days without great mountains in which the general trend are the winding and leg-breaking routes, as well as the final circuits. The Tour of Bretagne, won in 2017 by the Frenchman Flavien Dassonville, is an event where the Foundation, even without a continental team, already had a presence in 2015 and 2014. “I’m very motivated for the Tour of Bretagne”, says Michel Ries, who will be involved in the fight for the green jersey with the white band of the general classification. “It’s a very interesting race, with a lot of strong teams at the start. I’ve been training very well over the last few weeks and I sincerely believe that I and the team can do well”.
Jesús Hernández, director: “It is an important career in the international calendar. Several professional continental teams and the best continental teams take part. It’s going to be a great yardstick to measure our level. The Tour of Bretagne is similar to that of Normandy, perhaps harder. Yes, there are several stages with a certain percentage of finals on the field, but our approach is similar to that of the Norman event: we thought of going day by day and competing in the stages with Matteo if we reach the sprint and count on Michel Ries to get him involved in the fight for the general classification. We trust that Michel will always be ahead of us. The last day will be difficult: the climb up the circuit is hard; it will be a day of reaching the finish line one at a time or, if not, in very small groups”.
Stages.
Stage 1: Châteaubriant-Louisfert, 159,8 km.
Stage 2: Louisfert-Plougoumelen, 180 km.
Stage 3: Baden-Clohars Carnoët, 181,1 km.
Stage 4: Clohars Carnoët-Gran Champ, 162,7 km.
Stage 5: Colpo –Plancoët, 155,2 km.
Stage 6: Plancoët- Dol de Bretagne, 151,6 km
Stage 7: Saint Pôtan – Dinan, 145 km.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
