HTC-Columbia’s Matt Goss won the prestigious one-day GP Ouest France – Plouay race in Brittany with a perfectly timed sprint. The 23 year-old Australian beat American Tyler Farrar and Yoann Offredo of France, confirming his ever-improving ability in testing one-day races. It was Goss’s fourth win this season after stage victories in the Giro d’Italia and the Tour of Denmark and at the Philadelphia International in the USA. It was the 51st victory for the HTC-Columbia team in 2010 season.

Goss had been ill a few days before the race but saved his effort for the final sprint and took full advantage of some excellent work from his HTC-Columbia teammates.

They helped close the gap on a strong last-lap breakaway and two late solo attacks. Goss positioned himself perfectly in the final kilometre and then came off Farrar’s wheel to win by more than a bike length.

“Plouay is a long, hard race and so it’s nice to get a win. This is a big one and is really good for my confidence,” Goss said. “The race is held on a very testing circuit and so it’s similar to a world championship circuit: there are a lot of laps and lot of climbing per lap. It was tough, but I knew I had a great chance if it came down to a sprint. The last lap was very nervous and there was a good break in front. We knew we had to get it back and so did the other teams. It was close but then I just made sure I was in the right place for the sprint.”

Results:
1. Matthew Harley Goss (HTC Columbia/AUS) les 248,300 km en 6 h 37:53.
(Moyenne: 37.443 km/h)
2. Tyler Farrar (USA) m.t.
3. Yoann Offredo (FRA) m.t.
4. Fabio Duque (COL) m.t.
5. José Rojas (ESP) m.t.
6. Moro Santabambrogio (ITA) m.t.
7. Peter Sagan (SVK) m.t.
8. Francesco Gavazzi (ITA) m.t.
9. Marco Marcato (ITA) m.t.
10. Romain Feillu (FRA) m.t.
11. Philip Deignan (ITA) m.t.
12. Mickael Morkov (DAN) m.t.
13. Christophe Le Mével (FRA) m.t.
14. Grega Bole (SLO) m.t.
15. Sergei Klimov (RUS) m.t.
16. Jérome Pineau (FRA) m.t.
17. Roy Sentjens (BEL) m.t.
18. Manuele Mori (ITA) m.t.
19. Alessandro Ballan (ITA) m.t.
20. Serge Pauwels (BEL) m.t.