Mavi García uncorks flurry of attacks to conquer Classic Lorient Agglomeration

Mavi García (UAE ADQ) wasn’t letting the Classic Lorient Agglomeration-Ceratizit Trophy finish in a bunch sprint Saturday.

The Spanish champ uncorked a series of attacks through the final of the hilly WorldTour race to draw out Amber Kraak (Jumbo-Visma) and blast past her rival in a final two-rider gallop.

“It’s my first victory in a WorldTour classic, I am very happy,” García said.

Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez Futuroscope) finished third out of a small bunch of chasers that were distanced in the final kilometers after García launched yet another searing acceleration in a bid to foil the fastest finishers.

García flourished this season despite her reaching “veteran” status.

The 38-year-old doubled the Spanish road and TT titles, finished third in the Giro Donne and slotted into 10th at the Tour de France Femmes after bouncing back from a disaster day on the gravel-strewn fourth stage.

Victory on Saturday sees the Spaniard score the biggest result of an ever increasing palmarès in one of her final races before she joins Liv-Xstra in 2023.

“I attacked on the last two climbs because I was the best climber in the group but could not get away,” she explained.

“I thought we would arrive for a sprint, but nothing is lost by trying, so I attacked again. And finally, with one kilometer to go, we got away with Kraak. I am not a sprinter, but neither was she, and I won.”

Wow! That was a very, very hard-fought victory for Mavi Garciá!

What a ride in the final lap!#LorientAgglo pic.twitter.com/mynmwLNsKU

— UCI_WWT (@UCI_WWT) August 27, 2022

The Classic Lorient Agglomeration – once known as GP Plouay – is one of the toughest in the Women’s WorldTour.

At 160km and 2,200 meters of climbing, the 20th edition of the race was relentless and riddled with attacks and splits.

Sara Martín (Movistar) was reeled in at around 30km to go after playing lone survivor from the day’s early escape.

An all-star 13-rider move blew off the front and hit the final hilly 13km circuit around Plouay with around two minutes over the peloton after what had been an attritional day of racing.

García, Kraak, Brown, Audrey Cordon Ragot (Trek Segafredo), Juliette Labous (DSM), Blanka Vas (SD Worx), Amanda Spratt (BikeExchange), and Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) were among the dozen-plus riders that were poised to play for victory as the race roared toward the final.

García squeezed the pressure and split the group in two at 10km to go, but the leading six never gained enough ground to go clear.

The Spanish champ kept pushing through the final climbs and again forced small splits, but seemed destined to be derailed as Chabbey and Brown kept active in marking and countering moves.

Cordon Ragot, Spratt, and a handful more were dropped on the final climb before García and Kraak finally forced a winning move at 1500 meters to go.

The seven-rider chase group refused to cooperate and Kraak and García worked together just enough to fend off the faltering bunch behind.

The twosome dangled seconds ahead of the chasers in the wide finishing straight and Kraak was forced to lead out the sprint. García sat poised on the wheel and uncorked her acceleration at 100m to go to score victory over her Dutch rival.

Brown led home the chase group to take third.