Will it come with a sprint from a small group or will it be a tough race and will only one man win? This is the question that fantasy managers are asking themselves as they grapple with the line-up to be deployed at the Bretagne Classic 2023 , the World Tour race scheduled for Sunday 3 September along a rather demanding route made up of ups and downs and even a short stretch of dirt road 80 km from the finish. In all there will be 258 km to cover with a good 4,235 meters in altitude.

There will certainly be a selection but last year Wout Van Aert won by beating the current Under 23 world champion, Axel Laurance, and Alexander Kamp in the sprint. And there were even 18 who competed for success...

Said of the course let's talk about the favourites. Obviously the strong name at the start is that of Mathieu Van der Poel , fresh from his rainbow jersey, an unpredictable phenomenon who will also have Jasper Philipsen at his side, ready to play his cards in the event of a sprint (even if the route appears a bit tough for him). There is no shortage of alternatives, i.e. runners who are fast but capable of holding up on short climbs: let's name Christophe Laporte of Jumbo Visma, Arnaud De Lie of Lotto, Mads Pedersen of Lidl Trek, Alex Aranburu of Movistar, Corbin Strong of Israel, Michael Matthews from Jayco AlUla and Bini Girmay from Intermarché, the latter two also failed to impress in their latest outings.

If the race is a little tougher, pay attention to Tiesj Benoot of Jumbo, Marc Hirschi of Uae, Benoit Cosnefroy of Ag2R who won here two years ago, Ben Healy of EF, Stefan Kung and Valentin Madouas of Groupama, Mauro Schmid and Julian Alaphilippe of Soudal Quick Step, Dylan Teuns of Israel, Michal Kwiatkowski of Ineos and, why not, Alexander Kamp of Tudor.

Then there are other names that could do well but as possible surprises we mention only three, all Italians: Alberto Bettiol of EF, Simone Velasco of Astana and Matteo Trentin of UAE.