Circuit de la Sarthe, Stefan Denifl 5th of the GC «Thanks to my team»

The 61^st edition of the Circuit de la Sarthe-Pays-de-Loire wound up with the finish in Saint-Vincent-du-Lorouër, won by Francis Mourey (FDJ) with the hard-chasing peloton just two seconds behind him.

Pierre Rolland (Europcar) retained his overall lead after having grabbed the yellow jersey on the queen stage to the côte des Avaloirs just ahead of IAM Cycling’s Stefan Denifl.

Matteo Pelucchi, winner of the first stage and wearer of the yellow jersey for a day, succeeded in protecting his lead in the points classification and consequently takes home the green jersey as the most consistent sprinter.

For his part, Stefan Denifl retained his fifth place overall, twelve seconds behind Rolland.

The Austrian can look back on his week of racing with satisfaction.

“The final stage unfortunately was not hard enough to make any decisive attack to shake up the race.  But I have no regrets because I really enjoyed riding so well and getting second place on the stage up the côte des Avaloirs on Thursday.  I must also give a huge ‘thank you’ to all the IAM Cycling team; my teammates and the rest of the staff worked from beginning to end to succeed in the race, and supported me a great deal.  We wore the yellow jersey, won the green jersey, won a stage and then also finished 2^nd and 3^rd in two other stages.  There can be no doubt we came here to perform, and can be proud of how we proved our qualities.  Now I can go home to recover and prepare for the Amstel Gold and Flèche Wallonne.”

Photos: Etienne Garnier