Boucles de la Mayenne 2023 – Stage 3 [FULL STAGE]

May 28, 2023

Boucles de la Mayenne 2023 – Stage 3 – Montsûrs – Laval : 167 km

The Boucles de la Mayenne is a multi-day stage race held in the Pays de la Loire region of Western France. Since its first edition in 1975 several notable riders have etched their names onto its winners list. In more recent years the race has been shortened to four days. The prologue was also ditched, with the 2021 edition the first in a long time to get rid of the race against the clock. This year’s event will follow a similar hilly route to that of the 2022 and 2021 editions, though we will see the return of the traditional prologue after a two-year absence.

Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) won the stage 3 finale at Boucles de la Mayenne. The Dutch sprinter was the fastest in the final sprint beating Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) and Axel Zingle (Cofidis) in Laval.

Despite several breakaways across the hilly 176km route, the field came back together for a sprint, with Oier Lazkano (Movistar Team) finishing safely in the bunch to secure the overall victory.

Lazkano took over the race lead when he won stage 1 at Lassay-les-Châteaux. Maintaining his lead through the next two stages, he won the overall title by 29 seconds ahead of Démare and 33 seconds ahead of Zingle.

How it unfolded
The final day of the four-day event was held across a 167km race between Montsûrs and Laval.

The stage began with a climb over the Petite Tourmalet and then raced over Mont Rochard and Montaigu before crossing the valley roads toward the final three climbs; Côte de La Baconniere, Côte de la Galette and Côte de la Damberie. The stage ended with four short circuits in Laval.

After multiple attacks, Jacob Hindsgaul (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) was the first to crest the first climb of the day over Petite Tourmalet, solidifying his lead in the mountain classification.

A breakaway group formed shortly after that included Flavien Maurelet (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93), Marco Tizza (Bingoal WB), and Maximilien Juillard and Tom Mainguenaud (both Van Rysel-Roubaix Lille Metropole).

The quartet gained 24 seconds on the field when lone chaser Jon Barrenetxea (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) tried to bridge across. He successfully joined the break with 154km to go.

Movistar, protecting overall race leader Lazkano, led the peloton and held the breakaway at a manageable minute.

The breakaway held its gap across the main ascents of the day, but over the last climb of the Côte de la Damberie, they were joined by overall race leader Lazkano and Ewen Costiou (Arkea).

The breakaway was close in sight, and more attacks came out of the peloton, with Simon Pellaud (Tudor) joining the move just before it was swallowed up by the field with 25km to go.

Another brief move saw Van Rysel-Roubaix Lille Metropole teammates Celestin Guillon and Jeremy Leveau gain a few seconds, but they, too, were back in the bunch with five kilometres to the finish.

Tudor Pro Cycling pulled the peloton into the final kilometres on the last lap of racing, reeling in late-race attacker Morne van Niekerk (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93).

It wasn’t long before TotalEnergies organised their lead-out with four riders into the last two kilometres, but Groupama-FDJ and Tudor Pro Cycling were also in the mix, with De Kleijn taking the sprint victory.

Results :

Final General Classification :