Alexander Kristoff of Katusha has won the GP De Plouay race in France.
This UCI WorldTour GP Ouest France-Plouay race was over 229.1kms which comprised of eight laps of a 29km circuit and then a final circuit of 13.9kms.
The break was quick to form and Frederik Backaert of Wanty Group, Fumiyuki Beppu of Trek, Anthony Delaplace of Bretagne Seche Enviroment, Alexandre Pichot of Europcar and Quentin Jauregui of AG2R were in it.
They took an advantage of ten minutes which dropped to 7.40 and then 4.52 of a ten man chasing group which included Team Sky's Luke Rowe and Ben Swift but not Alex Dowsett who had been involved in a crash and banged his knee on his bar end which stopped his bike.
On lap six, the gap stood at 3.46. Swift dropped out of the chasing group as Quentin Jauregui put in an attack on the front ahead of a peloton which had split in two.
By the end of the lap, he had been caught and the front half of the peloton which Irishman Phillip Deignan of Team Sky, Tim Wellens, Rogers, Simon Clarke, Dillier, Lutsenko and Bono had a fifteen second gap with twenty nine kilometres to go.
Thirteen kilometres later and Wellens, Dillier and Lutsenko took over on the front with a fifteen second lead before they took on the final closing lap of 13.9kms with the Côte du Lezot, Minojenn du Calvaire and Côte de Ty-Marrec to negotiate.
Wellens dropped back to the peloton but Lutsenko and Dillier carried on with a twelve second lead.
Etixx Quick Step tried to bring them back on the Côte de Ty-Marrec with five kilometres left. Matti Breschel attacked and joined the two leaders whilst Greg Van Avermaet led a chase group.
Tijs Benoot and Van Avermaet bridged to the leaders and with 1.4kms left, Greg Van Avermaet put in an attack but he was caught and the race came down to a sprint which was won by Alexander Kristoff of Katusha.ahead of Ponzi, Navardauskas, Bole, Roelandts, Roux, Fonseca, Poels, Guldhammer and Cort.