The Morbihan weekend in 2019 gave Doltcini-Van Eyck Sport two very different race stories in the space of 24 hours. La Classique Morbihan was a frustrating miss, the kind of race where the decisive move formed without them and left the team chasing a result rather than shaping one. Grand Prix de Plumelec, though, was a better response. The result sheet still did not deliver a major headline, but the team rode with more purpose and finished much closer to the front.
Taken together, the two races offered a fair snapshot of where the team stood that weekend. They were competitive enough to be in the mix when the race stayed more controlled, but when the key split happened too early or too decisively, they struggled to get a rider into the right group. That was the main lesson from Morbihan.
La Classique Morbihan – the race gets away from them
La Classique Morbihan was won by Christine Majerus after a selective race that split well before the finish. Sofie De Vuyst and Tatiana Guderzo completed the podium, while several of the strongest riders in the field made the front selection that decided the day.
For Doltcini-Van Eyck Sport, that was the central problem. Around 30 riders made the decisive move and none of their riders were there to represent the team. Once that happened, the race was effectively gone from a tactical point of view. They were left trying to limit losses rather than fight for a meaningful result, and that naturally made the day a disappointment.
The team’s best finisher was Séverine Eraud in 48th, with Marion Sicot in 51st. Pascale Jeuland, Saartje Vandenbroucke, Jesse Vandenbulcke and Victoire Berteau all abandoned. For a squad that had enough depth to expect more from this type of race, that was a poor return.
What made the result more frustrating was that La Classique Morbihan was not won through one overwhelming late attack. It was a race shaped by being in the right move at the right time, and Doltcini-Van Eyck Sport simply were not there when it mattered. That is usually the hardest kind of defeat for a team to accept because it is not about being clearly outclassed in the finish. It is about missing the key point of the race altogether.
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Grand Prix de Plumelec – a much better answer the next day
The following day at Grand Prix de Plumelec-Morbihan Dames, the team gave a better account of themselves. The race was won by Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig ahead of Mavi Garcia and Sheyla Gutierrez, with the front of the race again shaped by strong climbers and puncheurs who could handle the repeated efforts into the uphill finish at Cadoudal.
That terrain always makes Plumelec a more selective race than the placings sometimes suggest. It is not just about surviving until the finish, but about handling repeated accelerations and holding position on a course that keeps asking questions. Doltcini-Van Eyck Sport managed that more effectively here than they had the day before.
Jesse Vandenbulcke finished 26th and Marion Sicot 32nd, both much closer to the winner than the team had managed in La Classique Morbihan. Pascale Jeuland came home 61st, while Eraud, Saartje Vandenbroucke and Victoire Berteau did not finish.
It was not a breakthrough result, and it did not suddenly transform the weekend, but it did feel like a more accurate reflection of the team’s level. They were more present, more competitive and better placed to respond to the demands of the race. After the disappointment of the previous day, that mattered.
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What the weekend showed
The contrast between the two races was clear. In La Classique Morbihan, the team missed the decisive split and never recovered. In Plumelec, they rode better and came away with a more respectable outcome, even if it still fell short of the front of the race.
That is often how weekends like this are best understood. Not as a simple success or failure, but as a measure of how well a team adapts from one race to the next. Doltcini-Van Eyck Sport did improve in that sense. The first day exposed a tactical shortcoming. The second showed a better response, with riders finishing much closer to where the race was decided.
A frustrating start, then a steadier finish
There was no disguising the disappointment of La Classique Morbihan. When a move of around 30 riders goes clear and a team has nobody there, the verdict is usually straightforward. They missed the race. But there was also no need to overstate the damage once Grand Prix de Plumelec arrived. The team were better, more visible and more competitive.
So the Morbihan weekend ended as something mixed rather than outright negative. One race had slipped away badly. The other at least offered some recovery and a reminder that the team could still ride close to the front when the race suited them a little more. Over the course of a long season, those kinds of weekends matter because they show not only where a team fell short, but also how quickly it can respond.
