Classic Lorient Agglomération

Classic Lorient Agglomération, in full Classic Lorient Agglomération - Ceratizit since 2022, is a women's WorldTour one-day bike race held in Brittany each August. First run in 2002 as the Grand Prix de Plouay féminin, it starts and finishes in Plouay, north of the port city of Lorient on the southern coast of the region, with a long loop through the Breton countryside before a hilly finishing circuit.

The Classic Lorient Agglomération is the women’s WorldTour race of the four days of racing held each year in Plouay, in Brittany, at the end of August. It was created in 2002 as the Grand Prix de Plouay féminin and has carried its present name since 2022. Lizzie Deignan and Mischa Bredewold have each won it three times.

Grand Prix de Plouay féminin: the first edition in 2002

The organizer counts its editions from 2002, when Regina Schleicher won ahead of Petra Rossner and Susanne Ljungskog. The 2026 race was the 25th.

Plouay had held women’s races before that, and they are the predecessors of today’s event. The organizer’s list of winners at Plouay opens with Anna Wilson in 1999 and Diana Žiliūtė in 2000. The 2001 winner on that list, Anna Millward, is the same Australian rider, who raced as Wilson until her marriage in 2000. Those three races are not part of the count of 25.

Plouay has also hosted championships. Zinaida Stahurskaia won the women’s road race at the 2000 world championships in Plouay, and Annemiek van Vleuten won the 2020 European title there.

Winners from Nicole Cooke to Lizzie Deignan

Nicole Cooke won in 2003, Noemi Cantele in 2005 and 2007, and Emma Pooley in 2009 and 2010. Marianne Vos won in 2012 and 2013, and she finished second four times, in 2009, 2010, 2014 and 2018. Deignan won in 2015, 2017 and 2020, which made her the first rider with three victories.

The Plouay circuit: Ty Marrec and the Côte du Lézot

The race starts and finishes in Plouay, and its route has changed several times. In 2019 it was 128 kilometers ridden entirely on laps, six of 16.7 kilometers and two of 13.9, with the finish 3.6 kilometers after the top of the Côte de Ty Marrec. By 2024 it had grown to 158 kilometers, a long loop through southern Brittany followed by 2.5 laps of an 11.7-kilometer circuit. In 2025 the finishing circuit climbed Rostervel, the steep Côte du Lézot and the short Bosse de Kerscoulic.

The 2026 edition was 172.6 kilometers long with about 2,800 meters of climbing. It passed the Côte du Lézot at kilometer 103 and finished on the 16.6-kilometer Ty Marrec circuit, where the riders climbed the Côte de Ty Marrec three times.

Anna van der Breggen’s solo win in 2019

Anna van der Breggen was world champion when she won in 2019. She attacked at the top of the Côte du Moulin, the first climb of the final lap, and had 13 seconds on three chasers with nine kilometers to go. She held her lead over the last 12 kilometers and finished 11 seconds ahead of Coryn Rivera, who won the sprint for second from Amy Pieters.

Pieters was Van der Breggen’s teammate at Boels-Dolmans, and that shaped the plan. “My sprint is not the best one, so a solo is my biggest chance to win the race. And we had Amy in the group behind, so if it hadn't worked out, she can still sprint,” Van der Breggen said.

Mischa Bredewold’s three wins in a row

Bredewold was 23 when she won in 2023, in a sprint of about 20 riders. It was her first victory in a WorldTour one-day race, and it came after Liane Lippert had been caught 4.3 kilometers from the finish. In 2024 Lippert attacked again, on the Lézot with five kilometers to go. Bredewold and Chloé Dygert closed the gap together, Dygert went clear inside the final kilometer, and Bredewold passed her in the last 50 meters.

The third win, in 2025, came after a crash on wet roads just before the finishing circuit. Bredewold got back to the peloton, and 21 riders reached the final kilometer together. She started her sprint early, Vos passed her, and Bredewold came back to win, with Eline Jansen third. Vos was 38 and riding the race for the first time in seven years. “I think it's lucky for me to crash here. Two years ago, I also crashed and won,” Bredewold said.

Elisa Balsamo ends the streak in 2026

Bredewold started the 2026 race with number 1 and lost her teammates earlier than her team had planned. She chased the moves herself: Anastasiya Kolesava’s with 25 kilometers to go, Cédrine Kerbaol‘s with 13.3, and the attack by Célia Gery and Eleonora Gasparrini on the Côte de Ty Marrec, less than six kilometers from the finish. Gery and Gasparrini were caught with 3.6 kilometers left.

Bredewold used the downhill into the finishing straight to launch a long sprint. Elisa Balsamo followed in her slipstream, drew level in the last 100 meters and beat her on the line, with Franziska Koch third. “When I saw that I could survive the last climb, we went all in for the sprint,” Balsamo said.

This is the Women's WorldTour race of the four days of racing held in Plouay each year in late August. The route brings short climbs, narrow roads and technical descents, and the late-summer timing means riders arrive in varied form. It rewards positioning as much as power, and the racing can fracture suddenly or stay together until the final kilometers.