Mirabelle Classic: Victoire Berteau on the podium!

 On the hilly roads of the Grand Est region, the race began to split up around the halfway point. Victoire Berteau, Nadia Quagliotto and Nikola Noskova all made it into a chasing group of around 15 riders, behind a lone breakaway rider.

Team Cofidis quickly took responsibility for the chase, with Nadia Quagliotto playing a key role. Despite their efforts, the gap remained significant: with 14 kilometres to go, the lone leader still held a 2-minute-30-second advantage. She maintained a two-minute lead with eight kilometres remaining and ultimately held on to take a solo victory.

In the chasing group, Victoire Berteau secured 3rd place, earning another podium finish for Team Cofidis. It was an emotional finish for the French rider, who was competing in her final road race of the season. Nikola Noskova took 8th place, while Nadia Quagliotto finished 14th.

Arthur Quilliec, Sports Director:

"We executed the race plan we had set out. The race split up around the halfway point, and we managed to get our three protected riders, Victoire Berteau, Nadia Quagliotto and Nikola Noskova, into a chasing group of around 15 riders.

We immediately took responsibility for the chase behind the lone breakaway rider, particularly through Nadia's efforts. Unfortunately, we came up against a rider who produced an incredible performance today. We were never able to close the gap sufficiently. It's obviously a little disappointing not to have been able to fight for the victory, but credit to her for such an impressive ride.

On our side, we stuck to our race plan and were right in contention in the final kilometres, with Victoire securing a great 3rd place."