Cosnefroy and Molano lead UAE hopes at the Boucles de la Mayenne

With a strong and experienced team, UAE Team Emirates-XRG is ready to chase stage wins and the general classification at the upcoming Boucles de la Mayenne. Led by Benoît Cosnefroy and Sebastián Molano, the Emirati squad will begin the four-day stage race on Thursday, 28 May.

Contested across an opening prologue and three subsequent road stages, the French 2.Pro event will be hosting its 51st edition, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG returns to the race for the first time in two years. Alongside the squad of Cosnefroy and Molano, there will be 11 further UCI WorldTeams on the startlist, promising a competitive four days of action in the Mayenne department.

Joining Cosnefroy and Molano at the Boucles de la Mayenne will be their teammates Luca Giaimi, Julius Johansen, Ivo Oliveira, and his twin brother Rui Oliveira. From the team car, instructions will come from Sports Directors Tomas Gil and Marco Marzano.

A two-time runner-up at this race in the past, Cosnefroy is a man well versed with the demands of the four-day test, and the Frenchman will hope to add to his stage win from 2024. On that day, the puncheur pipped his now-teammate Ivo Oliveira to the day’s victory in the prologue, and the opening day will certainly be suited to both riders once more.

Looking ahead to the race, Cosnefroy was full of optimism after his recent run of form, which yielded a stage at the Tour de Hongrie earlier in the month.

Cosnefroy: “Boucles de la Mayenne is a race I’ve ridden many times and know very well. Personally, it’s been a very positive couple of months of racing and I hope to continue that.

“Our team is strong – already for the Prologue on day one we have a number of riders who can go for the win. I’ve been second in the GC here twice in the past and it would be nice to win or to do it with one of my teammates.”

In the hunt for the general classification, Cosnefroy knows better than any rider that this race is a matter of seconds, and often, a matter of bonus seconds. Aaron Gate of XDS Astana Team won last year’s edition, with Cosnefroy in fifth, just seven seconds down.

Owing to the importance of those bonus seconds, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will be keen to add to its tally of stage wins from the Boucles de la Mayenne. Returning to the race once more, both Ivo Oliveira (2023) and Sebastián Molano (2022) are former stage winners in the Pays de la Loire region.

As has become the custom for the four-day stage race, the general classification will likely be defined by the prologue and a challenging affair on stage 2, whilst the bunch sprinters like Molano will get their chance to shine on stages 1 and 3.

For the fourth year in a row, the race will begin in Laval, at the Espace Mayenne.

This time out, the prologue will be 5.4km long and includes a 700m stretch at 4.5%. The route itself is an out-and-back, figure-of-eight to the banks of the Mayenne River.

With the first race leader determined by the prologue, stage 1 will run from Renault Saint-Berthevin to Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne on Friday. There is not an inconsequential amount of climbing, but should the peloton stick together, a bunch sprint can be expected at the end of the 172.3km-long stage. A closing circuit in the south of Château-Gontier is 13km long and will be tackled three times before the finish.

With over 3,700m of climbing to be dealt with, stage 2 is by far and away the toughest stage of the race. As such, we can expect much of the general classification battle to come down to this 215.3km-long test between Aron and Pré-en-Pail-Saint-Samson.

It is around the finish town where much of the day’s action will take place, with the peloton hitting the local circuit with 90km still to ride. A local lap will take the riders over a category one ascent that stands at 5.5% for 2.8km, before a category two climb which stretches out for 1.8km at 5.3%.

Not the toughest of climbs, then, but these two ascents will be tackled five times apiece, before a sixth inclusion of the category one climb that will top out with just 6km of downhill to the finish line. With barely an inch of flat road across the last 90km of racing, stage 2 will provide ample terrain for attacking racing and an entertaining contest.

The four-day stage race will draw to a close with another flat affair between Cossé-le-Vivien and Laval.

At 147.8km in length, stage 3 has 1,518m of climbing, but with a closing circuit in Laval that should keep the roadside fans entertained, a bunch sprint can be expected on Sunday, 31 May.