Women’s GP de Plumelec-Morbihan History
The Women’s GP de Plumelec-Morbihan has been taking place since 2011, originally as a national-level race but was elevated to the UCI level in 2014. After a season as a 1.2 race, it’s been on the calendar ever since as a 1.1, able to attract stars but also keep local teams still able to attend.
The winners’ list is strong for a largely 1.1 race. You’ve got the likes of newly crowned Liege Bastogne Liege winner Grace Brown, along with Ally Wollaston and Chiara Consonni in recent years. Then Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and a pair of wins for Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio. Only the South African and Audrey Cordon-Ragot (2012 + 2014) have been able to win this one twice.
The route for 2024 is split into 2 loops – a grand loop of 13.7km which will be tackled 3 times and then a petit loop of 7.8km for 7 laps. The focal point for attacks is the Côte de Plumelec which also makes the final kilometre of the race. Tackled 10 times across the whole race it will prove decisive. It’s not a massive climb but at 1.3km at 6% it will gradually whittle down the peloton.
Previous Winners
2023
Grace Brown
2022
Ally Wollaston
2021
Chiara Consonni
Women’s GP de Plumelec-Morbihan 2024 Profile
TV Coverage
Saturday 4th May 2024
Live on Eurosport/Discovery in Europe
09:15-10:30
All times in BST
Twitter:#GPMorbihan
Startlist: FirstCycling
Women’s GP de Plumelec-Morbihan 2024 Contenders
UAE Team ADQ look a bit overpowered here, which is starting to be their recent port of call. They went 1-2-3-4 in the GP della Liberazione PINK a week or so ago and they’ve brought a similar line-up here, albeit minus Chiara Consonni. The return of Dominika Wlodarczyk is encouraging. The Pole impressed many with her stint in Australia at the beginning of the season only to have it derailed on the opening stage of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana when she sustained a concussion. Fighting fit, she would be a favourite here but may need to temper those expectations this year. Silvia Persico is an obvious threat for the win and it could be her turn to win after gifting GP della Liberazione PINK to Consonni and finishing arm-in-arm in 2nd place. She certainly has the right mix of a big engine, a fast finish and no problem on the climbs. I quite like the chances of Eleonora Gasparrini as a faster finisher and she joined Persico and Consonni on the podium at the aforementioned race. She also took 6th at Amstel Gold Race to underline her current form.
Ceratizit WNT hopes to be in with a shout and is bringing riders with quick finishes as well. Marta Lach seems the obvious pick for the team with the Pole’s ability to sprint after tough hilly days well established at this point. She’s in particularly strong form after winning both of the Ceratizit Festival Elsy Jacobs races last weekend too. The team can also look to Kathrin Schweinberger (4th in Spain earlier in the season), Mylene de Zoete (9th at Festival Elsy Jacobs à Luxembourg) and Laura Asencio (top-10 here in 2018).
Cofidis will once again look to their French champion Victoire Berteau for a strong result. She took a bit of a break after Paris Roubaix Femmes where she finished 8th and capped off a strong sprint which saw plenty of podiums and top-10s, even if there wasn’t a win. The talk is she’s going to a Women’s WorldTour team in 2025 and another strong result here will do those contract negotiations the world of good. Valentine Fortin was really strong at the end of the 2023 season but has struggled to replicate it again so far. She was good at the UAE Tour but ever since then has been scratching around for results. The race here at GP de Plumelec-Morbihan gives her a chance to find some form again.
FDJ-Suez will certainly have a chance here even if they don’t come into GP de Plumelec-Morbihan as major favourites with their line-up. There are strong options in the likes of Lea Curinier who has top-10 results at the Tour de Normandie Féminin and Setmana Ciclista Valenciana this season. Jade Wiel has also impressed with 6th at Omloop van het Hageland, Nina Buijsman’s best result is 12th at Le Samyn des Dames and whilst Eugénie Duval has only raced once this year, she was 6th here back in 2018. You also can’t ignore the attacking threat of Loes Adegeest who can try to emulate the method in which Grace Brown won this race last season.
Maeva Squiban is a rider who looks to have moved up a level in 2024, with a strong TT rider to 4th at the Vuelta Extremadura Feminas backing up her 6th and 7th places secured in Spain right at the beginning of the 2024 season. She will certainly get an opportunity here. Hopefully, we see Emilia Fahlin in the mix again too, she took her best result of the year so far at Ronde de Mouscron when the Swede took 7th place. She could be an ideal foil for attacks from Squiban.
Former UAE Team ADQ rider Ursa Pintar is racing for BTC City Ljubljana Zhiraf Ambedo these days and has been going well this year. She kicked it off with 3rd at the Porec Trophy before having a strong Gracia Orlová. She finished 8th in GC there and challenged for the stage on the opening days where the Slovene finished 3rd and 4th.
Another rider taking their best result of the year so far recently is Victorie Guilman. The St Michel-Mavic-Auber93 rider finished 2nd at the Pays de la Loire Tour Féminin. She got the season off to a strong start in Australia where she was taking top-10 WWT results for fun. Teammate Marion Bunel feels on the cusp of a really big season. She secured 5th in GC at the UAE Tour Women where she was contesting the top positions with WWT riders. She’s followed that with 9th in GC at the brutally tough Tour de Normandie Féminin and 8th at the Pays de la Loire Tour. The climb here might not be tough enough for her and she may get swamped in any final sprint.
Anastasiya Kolesava is starting to look solid for the Canyon SRAM Generation team. There’s only one top-10 result to speak of, 6th on the final day of Trofeo Ponente in Rosa but she’s been consistently just outside of the top-10 for a while. 12th at Festival Elsy Jacobs à Garnich, 14th at GP Féminin de Chambéry and 16th at Trofeo Oro in Euro. This momentum will build up to a really big result soon.
After spending most of Spring in and out of my Outsiders lists, Emma Jeffers finally delivered with a pair of sprint victories at Gracia Orlová last week. The 19-year-old took her maiden UCI victory on Stage 4 and then proved it was no fluke. The last stage was particularly rolling and the finish photo showed a large gap back to her rivals. This is a stronger field but we’ll see how she fares here.
Women’s GP de Plumelec-Morbihan 2024 Outsiders
Allison Mrugal is heading to France after a strong Giro Mediterraneo in Rosa which saw the American finish 9th overall in GC and take a pair of top-10 finishes. She’s also managed to do well in France this year with 6th at the Pays de la Loire Tour Féminin back at the start of April. She could deliver a result here.
Another rider who did well in the Pays de la Loire Tour was the Aussie Lucinda Stewart who finished 3rd. It’s comfortably the best European result secured so far for the 19-year-old and it comes after winning the prestigious Melbour-Warrnambool race back home too.
Karin Söderqvist had a strong Gracia Orlová last week which saw the Swede finish 18th Overall but also take a pair of top-10 finishes at the start. She took 4th on the opening stage and 8th the next day before falling back a bit due to the time trial stage.
Leonie Laubig is another rider to some good results this season after taking 7th in GC at the EF Education-Cannondale dominated Trofeo Ponente in Rosa, taking a 3rd on Stage 2 there along the way. She also sprinted to 5th in the Porec Trophy Ladies over in Croatia. This will be a step up but we’ve seen the German do well before.
Tashkent City Women are very dependent on Yanina Kuskova coming good. She’s the young Uzbek on the team looking most likely to do well elsewhere eventually at some point. She was 6th in the Tour of the Gila in the USA last week, almost finishing every stage in the top-10…only Stage 1’s 11th place letting the run down.
Like Mrugal at the top of this section, the Afghan rider Fariba Hashimi had a strong Giro Mediterraneo in Rosa. Racing for the WCC team, she took the highest-ever UCI results for her nation in finishing 4th and 5th on the hardest starts of that Giro, finishing 10th in GC as a result. She should be ok on the climbs but the winding roads in Brittany might be another issue.
Top 3 Prediction
- Eleonora Gasparrini
- Marta Lach
- Silva Persico
