GP Ouest France... LIVE!

Ballan, de la Fuente, and four others have 35 seconds. Very dangerous place. Liquigas is trying to pin it back.

all I have is a live ticker. In French.

has been the man all day. If this group stays away, he doesn’t seem to have a chance, but if there were any justice (which there isn’t), he’d win.

My French is really getting tested, but it sounds like there was a reconnection with the peloton, only to see Ballan attack.

Amazingly, whoever is running the Eurosport ticker can’t find anything to say for several minutes at a time. My regurgitation of their ticker is more active than their ticker. Don’t these people love cycling?

and miraculously the eurosport ticker has found something to say: ballan, David Lopez and Pierrick Fedrigo are away. How, apparently, isn’t important.

Is the person at eurosport being paid to watch the race and not talk about it? I can’t believe this is a 75-year-old pro tour race. Complete joke.

Ballan is being called the winner apparent, as apparently the three are well enough away on the final cote. Lopez tries an attack at 4km, sensibly enough, but Ballan isn’t sleeping.

surely the race is about over, but I am waiting for the ticker to update. is it 1998?

one last update remaining for our poor beleaguered ticker operator.

so the French media place a reverse jinx on Ballan, anointing him the fave of the break, only to see him go from 150 meters and not quite make it to the line. Victoire for Bweeg, on what has to be their home court, the next province over from Vendee.

the top line of the ticker has 1. ballan 2. fedrigo 3. lopez. Stay tuned.

says it’s Fedrigo. This, I believe.

this ridiculous media horror show is over. I’m due back at the 21st century.

See what happens when you go on vacation? Pro cycling collapses.

By the way I love reading these tickers after the race is done, they’re so compelling for not knowing what’s going to happen. Fédrigo is first mentioned at 100km to go, but only as an aside, as someone who might help Voeckler. Then he appears again at 20km, and at 18, where he catches the breakaway group alone! (shades of Cancellara in Beijing). Then he attacks again with Lopez and Ballan, and the final group is set. He and Ballan fend off Lopez’s attack at 4km. Then, after it looks like they all might be caught at 1km because they’re all staring at each other, the guy still has enough strength to win the sprint! That’s great stuff. Even mother nature cooperated – it was a cool day and started to rain at 72km – might as well have been the Flèche Wallone! (Well OK slight exaggeration.) Guess when it’s your day it’s your day.