Unusual Beginners Madouas and Mohoric
Key points:
The route of the 42nd edition of the Tro Bro Leon, to be held on 11 May, was unveiled today at the Récré des 3 Curés leisure park, near Brest. Traditionally drawn with a start and finish in the commune of Lannilis over a total distance of 203.5 kilometres, the 2025 course includes 29 ribinou, or 34.3 kilometres of gravelled roads.
Among the most highly awaited contenders, local rider Valentin Madouas who is the silver medallist for Olympic road racing, will be competing for the first time in an event where he knows all the ins and outs. He will have to contend with former winners Arnaud De Lie, Hugo Hofstetter and Adrien Petit, as well as experts such as former world champion of gravel Matej Mohoric and Anthony Turgis, who took advantage of the white paths to win stage 9 of the 2024 Tour de France around Troyes.
Jean-Paul Mellouët, the founder of the Tro Bro Leon, has never laid out the same route twice since 1984, and it’s the case again this year with the inception of a new ribin, known as the Leuré Braz, on May 11. Although it is only 700 metres long and classified as two stars compared with four for the most difficult gravelled sectors, it may well inspire Valentin Madouas, as it is located between the villages of Tréflez and Plouider, where his parents got married, 86 kilometres from the finish in the Breton town of Lannilis. At the age of 28, the Olympic silver medallist and local boy will finally take part in the race of his heart for the first time, thirteen years after finishing tenth in the opening race, the Trophée Madiot for u17 riders, which continues to use the Meshuel ribin on the final circuit.
Tro Bro Leon 2025 will be broadcast on TV when the riders approach the Côte des Légendes and its famous Meneham rock, located less than 80 kilometers from the finish. A little further on, the strategic sector around Plouguerneau has been revised from last year in order to minimise punctures, but that actually didn’t prevent Arnaud De Lie from getting back into the front group and taking what he considers to be one of his finest victories, along with the pig as the winner’s trophy that went to his family farm in Lescheret, in the Belgian province of Luxembourg. In addition to De Lie, Clément Venturini, Riley Sheehan, Jonas Abrahamsen, Morne van Nierkerk, Luca Mozzato and Tom Van Asbroeck, all of whom finished in the top 10 last year, are back in the running. Two other former winners are again candidates: Adrien Petit (2014) and Hugo Hofstetter (2022).
The line-up is on the up this year with the participation, for the first time, of the Bahrain Victorious, XDS Astana and Movistar teams, the former announcing the presence of Matej Mohoric, three-time Tour de France stage winner and victor of the 2022 Milan-San Remo. “Of the 22 teams selected, 13 will also be taking part in the Tour de France,” pointed out the event’s technical director Cédric Coutouly. Exactly twenty years after his second place in the Tro Bro Leon behind Tristan Valentin, who has also successfully moved to the organisation of cycling events after his own sporting career, he is taking up one of Mellouët’s tried and tested recipes: the two passages in front of the castle of Keroüartz and on its four-star ribin, 42 and 8 kilometres from the finish.
Overall, there are 34.3km of ribinou along the route, including a curiosity in the first part of the race: the Roudoulevry gravelled sector (nbr 27), which the Tro Bro Leon has not visited since it was converted into a bike path. “It’s quite a long one (2.2km) and it should take a lot of energy out that might be missing in the finale,” Coutouly predicted. It won’t come as a surprise to Madouas, who lives a ten-minute cycle ride away, and Mohoric should enjoy discovering this unconventional terrain for a bike race.
22 Teams – Key Riders
Bahrain
Bahrain Victorious: Mohoric (SLO), Wright (GBR)
Belgium
Intermarché-Wanty: Page (FRA), Petit (FRA), Artz (NED)
Lotto: De Lie (BEL), Segaert (BEL), Van Moer (BEL)
Wagner-Bazin-WB: Desal (BEL), Barbier (FRA)
France
Arkéa-B&B Hotels: Mozzato (ITA), Venturini (FRA), Biermans (BEL)
Cofidis: Renard (FRA), Touzé (FRA), A. De Gendt (BEL)
Décathlon-AG2R La Mondiale: Cosnefroy (FRA), R. Pedersen (DEN), Chamberlain (AUS)
Groupama-FDJ: Madouas (FRA), Le Gac (FRA), Le Huitouze (FRA)
TotalEnergies: Turgis (FRA), Brunel (FRA), Dauphin (FRA)
Unibet Tietema Rockets: Kubis (SVK), Loockx (BEL)
Van Rysel-Roubaix: Morin (FRA), Planckaert (BEL)
Nice Métropole Côte d’Azur: Hanninen (FIN), Girard (FRA), Mifsud (MLT)
CIC-U-Nantes: Augé (FRA), Guégan (FRA), Mariault (FRA)
St-Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93: Champion (FRA), Riou (FRA), Van Niekerk (RSA)
Israel
Israel Premier Tech: Hofstetter (FRA), Sheehan (USA), Van Asbroeck (BEL)
Kazakhstan
XDS Astana: Ballerini (ITA), Teunissen (BEL), Bol (NED)
Norway
Uno-X Mobility: Abrahamsen (NOR), Dversnes (NOR), Tiller (NOR)
Spain
Movistar: Canal (SPA), Garcia Cortina (SPA)
Kern Pharma: Galvan (SPA), Soto (SPA), Miquel (SPA)
Burgos-Burpellet BH: Alleno (FRA), Jackson (NZL)
Euskaltel-Euskadi: Hennequin (FRA), Dekker (NED), Martin-Sanz (SPA)
Switzerland
Tudor Pro Cycling: Haller (AUT), Froidevaux (SUI)
