Tro Bro Leon 2022 12/05/22 - 16/05/22

Three members of the club Calum Cheshsire, Adrian Turner, Will Hornby along with John Potts from Somerset were very keen to experience the long established annual cycle race in Brittany.

A plan for the event was quickly assembled with Adrian Turner volunteering to drive and book the ferry while Will Hornby booked a Gite for the weekend at Guissiney only a short 12 km ride from the start/finish of the race and the sportive in Lannilis. We would all ride the sportive the day before the Elite race which is part of the French Road Cycling Cup.

Thursday 

We left Plymouth on the 11pm ferry after stopping at the Barbican for fish and chips on Thursday evening.

Friday 

The ferry docked at 8 am and after breakfast in Roscoff we had only a short 40 km drive to our accommodation in Guisseny. The Gite we had rented for the weekend was in a great location only a couple of hundred metres from the beach and equipped with all the facilities required including a handy garage for storing the bikes and a table tennis table.

On arrival at the Gite we arranged for a pre sportive leg loosener along the coast thanks to John’s laptop which he used to create GPX files to load onto our bike computers. The route was fantastic with great views and we also found an excellent restaurant for crepe's. The weather was very warm and sunny, excellent conditions for a leisurely ride and eating outside although we should have applied more sun cream between us.

Saturday 

The start for the biggest ride of our weekend away was the 117 km Tro Bro Leon Cyclo taking place on a similar course to the Elite race which would be held the day afterwards. The late start to the event meant we had a very relaxing morning which involved leaving to ride the 12 km to the sign on in Lannilis at 10 am. The signing on was straightforward which left us time for a relaxing coffee in the town followed by a trip to a bakery for an early lunch so we were ready to start at 1 pm.

All four of us started the sportive together in the same wave of riders but after the first gravel section leaving Lannilis our plans of riding together were quickly abandoned. Will followed the front riders through the first section of ribinoù and was quickly joined by Calum once the route rejoined the tarmac. After a quick discussion between Calum and Will it was decided we were committed and should continue at our own pace. All four of us had a great ride with Adrian and John also completing the ride together and finishing a short time after Will and Calum.

The route for the sportive and the elite race that follows the day afterwards is fairly unique in it's choice of roads taking place as it does on tarmac roads which generally feel a lot smoother than what we are used to in the South Hams and then switching to the ribinoù which are rough farm tracks with a lot of sand. Adrian and Will both proved more adept on the ribinoù whereas John and Calum were much happier maintaining a high pace on the smoother roads.

We did have a couple of mechanical problems on the sportive with John breaking his rear gear cable which was expertly repaired on the road by Adrian with cable ties which although still limiting John to only 2 gears they were much more useable. Surprisingly given the conditions Will was the only one of us to puncture which he did twice on the ribinoù. Puncture #1 was caused by a sharp stone and puncture #2 a thorn. A little annoying but he was relived to be riding with Calum who still had three spare tubes.

The whole event was really friendly with all the participants, event organisers and volunteers keen to chat.

Spécial 👋 to @SirWiggo from #TroBroCyclo with @cssouthhams band ! pic.twitter.com/BNbpQD3nrV

— 🅰ntoine VAYER 📸🖋️ (@festinaboy) May 14, 2022

Sunday

The day of the Elite race and fortunately for us the professionals would have to cycle in much wetter conditions than for our sportive which was also 100 km shorter. With another late start we had time for a leisurely start and plenty of breakfast an early lunch and time for John to replace his rear gear cable after the good fortune of being able to buy one from the supermarket in Lannilis after the sportive.

Tro Bro Leon is a great race for spectators with it's twisting course we were easily able to watch the race in six separate locations. 

The team of the race was the local Breton team Arkea -Samsic who were very prominent in the latter stages of the race. Hugo Hofstetter was lead out by his team mate in the break Connor Swift.

1/ Hugo Hofstetter (Arkéa-Samsic) 2/ Luca Mozzato (B&B Hotels-KTM) 3/ Connor Swift (Arkéa-Samsic) - +0'09" 4/ Arnaud de Lie (Lotto Soudal) - +0'30" 5/ Samuel Watson (Groupama-FDJ) 6/ Matis Louvel (Arkéa-Samsic) 7/ Laurent Pichon (Arkéa-Samsic) 8/ Morné van Niekerk (St Michel-Auber 93) 9/ Stan Dewulf (AG2R Citroën Team) 10/ Matthieu Ladagnous (Groupama-FDJ) - +0'33"

Monday 

Our last day in Brittany and we decided to plan one last short ride with the help of John's laptop before catching the ferry from Roscoff to Plymouth in the afternoon. Our route along the coast this time in an easterly direction was enjoyable despite the rain and we even managed to find a few extra off road sections.

Conclusions 

A very enjoyable trip and we are all very keen for more similar cycling trips away. Tro Bro Leon is an event which is very easy to reach from Roscoff and our only slight regret was that we did not choose to ride the whole way as many other cyclists from England had done. Next time we might go without a car although the ability to easily take lots of spare clothes and buy food and drink to take back on the ferry was very advantageous.