As a puncheur, Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne) excels in the kind of uphill sprints that usually end the GP de Plumelec de Morbihan. Hence, he was naturally one of the favourites for today's edition of the French one-day race but after Bryan Coquard left a gap in the finale, he had to settle for third.

For the first time, Bretagne have been invited to the Tour de France and so the team is now busy preparing for their first participation in the race. One of the riders that is expected to be a key part of the roster is fast finisher Armindo Fonseca who has just finished a four-week training block to get ready for the race.

Today he returned to competition in the GP de Plumelec-Morbihan which usually ends in a uphill sprint perfectly suited to Fonseca's characteristics. The Frenchman proved that he is already in really good condition when he sprinted to third behind the Cofidis duo of Julien Simon and Luis Angel Maté.

However, he was not completely satisfied with the outcome as Bryan Coquard had opened a gap that made it impossible to go for the win.

"I'm obviously a little disappointed with this third place, but it proves that the condition is good," he told Directvelo. "This is very reassuring. I had not raced for four weeks since the GP Frankfurt on May 1. With two laps to go, I was in a group of twenty riders. The agreement was not very good. 

"[In the finale] I was on the wheel of Samuel Dumoulin for the sprint. He was behind Bryan Coquard. The latter blew up and opened a small gap. Then Julien Simon's teammates increased the pace. I had to make an ​the effort 5-600 meters from the line. 350 meters from the finish I got back onto the wheel of Julien. But I couldn't expect to do better after that effort.

"It was an important race. It is one of the best races in the region. It is even more exciting when there are a lot of people. Tomorrow [in the Boucles de l'Aulne] we have good cards to play. I finished third last year, I hope to do better knowing that the sensations were good today. It may be necessary to anticipate but I expect a sprint. Then I'll do the Boucle de la Mayenne, the Route du Sud and the Championships of France to ramp up for the Tour de France."

Earlier in the race teammate Vegard Stake Laengen had animated the racing by being part of the early break.

"At the briefing, the instructions were to place someone in the break," sports director Roger Trehin said. "Vegard volunteered, he also wanted to constest the mountains competition which he won. He really missed just a little bit. The duo (Laengen-Gougeard) was caught just 1.5 km from the finish. It's a good performance. All riders did well in the race."

"It was really fast until the bottom of the final climb," Erwann Corbel who finished 13th, said. "I was in sixth position at that point. I thought it was going to be really fast. Bryan Coquard blew up and got dropped. It opened a gap. Armindo had to produce two efforts to get back. It's a shame that he paid for thay at the end. I tried to finish the best I could. Thirteenth is satisfying knowing that it was my first Grand Prix Plumelec in the pro ranks."