A textbook numbers game delivered Visma its first ever Tro-Bro Léon. The team loaded the decisive front selection with Per Strand Hagenes and Axel Zingle, who attacked and forced rivals to chase, keeping the finale open and uncontrolled. That left winter signing Filippo Fiorelli sheltered and perfectly placed to launch the winning move with about 3 km to go and ride solo into Lannilis. With Hagenes also taking tenth and Zingle seventh, three Visma riders finished in the top ten — a complete team performance on a day the team was also racking up wins elsewhere.
Cycling Results · Post-Race Analysis · Édition 2026
Tro-Bro Léon
2026
Filippo Fiorelli took the biggest win of his career and the first ever Tro-Bro Léon victory for Team Visma | Lease a Bike, attacking out of a reduced front group with around 3 km to go and holding off the chase to win solo in Lannilis. The 43rd edition ran true to type — 202 km broken apart by 29 ribinoù farm-track gravel sectors (around 34 km off-road), with crashes, punctures and relentless splits whittling the race to a classics-style front selection. Alexis Renard (Cofidis) won the bunch kick for second ahead of Lewis Askey (NSN Cycling Team), with Visma's numbers — Zingle, Hagenes — proving decisive in the finale.
Fiorelli's late solo on the ribinoù lands Visma its first Tro-Bro Léon
OPENING202 km starting and finishing in Lannilis at the western tip of Brittany, the 43rd Tro-Bro Léon and its signature menu of 29 ribinoù — short, rough farm-track gravel-and-cobble sectors totalling around 34 km of off-road. The 'Tour of the Léon' is the closest thing the French calendar has to a mini Roubaix: a road race repeatedly fractured by unpaved lanes where punctures, crashes and split-second positioning matter more than raw climbing legs. Defending champion Bastien Tronchon started with ambitions to repeat but, by the organiser's own account, was not on his best form and never figured in the decisive moves.
UNFOLDSAn early breakaway went clear but the ribinoù did the sorting: as the gravel sectors accumulated and teams hit them at full gas, the escapees were gradually pulled back and the bunch shattered into echelons and chase groups. Crashes, punctures and mechanicals were a constant theme, repeatedly reshuffling the front of the race. With around 30 km to go the race swung toward a strong classics-style front selection — Per Strand Hagenes (Visma), Lewis Askey, Fred Wright and others rode clear over the gravel, holding only a slim margin over a chasing peloton.
DECIDEDVisma | Lease a Bike and Decathlon both had numbers in the move, and the Dutch team used theirs ruthlessly. Axel Zingle attacked to force the others to chase and keep the race open and uncontrolled, while Hagenes' earlier aggression stretched rivals across the closing ribinoù. The favourites began marking each other, and Fiorelli — the team's winter signing, sitting relatively sheltered in the small front group — was perfectly placed for the move that mattered.
FINALEOn one of the final paved sections after the last gravel, with roughly 3 km to go, Fiorelli launched and immediately opened a gap on a hesitating group. He committed fully and rode solo all the way back into Lannilis, narrowly holding off the chase for the biggest victory of his career and Visma's first ever Tro-Bro Léon. Behind, the remnants of the lead group sprinted for the minor placings, Alexis Renard (Cofidis) taking second ahead of Lewis Askey (NSN) and Pierre Gautherat (Decathlon), all credited at the same time as the winner.
Where the race tilted
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Classics-style front selection forms on the gravelAs the ribinoù farm-track sectors stacked up, a strong reduced lead group — Per Strand Hagenes, Lewis Askey, Fred Wright and others — rode clear with around 30 km to go, holding only a slim margin over a chasing peloton split by crashes and punctures.
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Visma forces the race openAxel Zingle attacked from the lead group to make rivals chase, while Hagenes' earlier aggression kept the move stretched and uncontrolled, setting up a numbers advantage for Visma into the closing kilometres.
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Fiorelli attacks and goes soloOn a paved stretch after the last ribin, Fiorelli jumped from the hesitating front group and instantly opened a gap, committing fully to ride solo to the line in Lannilis for the win.
Who pressed, who missed
Alexis Renard carried Cofidis into the day's decisive front group and won the sprint of the chasers for second place, beaten only by Fiorelli's perfectly timed solo. A strong runner-up on a brutally selective parcours and a reminder of the team's depth in the rough-road French one-day races.
Lewis Askey was one of the most active riders in the closing ribinoù, going clear in the strong lead group with around 30 km to go and then taking third in the sprint for the minor placings. A standout podium on a marquee gravel-flavoured Classic and a high-water result for the squad against WorldTour opposition.
Decathlon matched Visma for bodies in the front move but couldn't convert. Pierre Gautherat was best of the team in fourth, contesting the chase-group sprint at the same time as the podium. With defending champion Bastien Tronchon off his best form and not a factor in the decisive selection, the day became a missed opportunity for a team that had the strength to win.
Coming off Benoît Cosnefroy's win at the GP du Morbihan the day before, UAE kept the puncheur in the front selection at Tro-Bro Léon, where he finished sixth in the reduced-group sprint. Another front-of-race ride across the Breton block, even if the back-to-back double slipped away on the gravel.
How each story played out
The Italian winter signing rode the perfect opportunist's race, letting teammates Hagenes and Zingle force the action while he sat sheltered in the small front group across the closing ribinoù. When the favourites began marking each other, he launched on a paved section after the last gravel with around 3 km to go, opened an immediate gap and committed fully to a solo move all the way into Lannilis. It was the biggest win of his career and Visma's first ever Tro-Bro Léon — a result that fits his role as a versatile classics rider expected to support Wout van Aert and Matthew Brennan at the Vuelta later in the season.
- 3 kmAttacked from the front group on the final paved section and rode solo to the win
Hagenes was central to Visma's winning tactic, going clear in the strong lead group on the gravel with around 30 km to go and animating the finale to keep the move stretched and uncontrolled. His aggression, alongside Zingle's, drew out rivals and created the space for Fiorelli's late solo. He paid for the effort with a small gap at the line but still held on for tenth.
- 30 kmIn the strong front selection that formed on the ribinoù, helping force the race open
A gravel Classic decided by numbers and a perfectly timed move
Tro-Bro Léon 2026 ran exactly to its rough-road script: 29 ribinoù sectors, repeated crashes and punctures, and a race that shattered into a small classics-style front group rather than coming back together for a sprint. On that terrain, the team with the most bodies in the move and the coolest head usually wins, and Visma | Lease a Bike had both — Hagenes and Zingle to light the fuse, Fiorelli to strike. For the Italian it was a career-defining victory; for the team, a first win in one of France's most distinctive one-day races and another line on a busy spring of results.
Where this analysis comes from
- 🇬🇧 ProCyclingStats — Tro-Bro Léon 2026 result
- 🇬🇧 CyclingUpToDate — Results Tro-Bro Leon 2026 | Victorious Visma see Filippo Fiorelli take the biggest win of his career
- 🇬🇧 IDL ProCycling — Fiorelli strikes at the perfect moment to give Visma | Lease a Bike a stunning win at Tro-Bro Léon
- 🇫🇷 Velo 101 — Filippo Fiorelli remporte le Tro Bro Leon 2026