Published on : 03/28/2022
From Catalonia to Mont Kemmel via the Touraine hills, our riders were again in evidence this week and continue to score valuable points in the World Tour race.
Tour of Catalonia
In this new World Tour stage race, Guillaume Martin achieved another top 10 finish in 8th place. In the top 10 of 4 of the 7 stages that took place, our leader showed a lot of regularity and hung on to the other favourites for a long time on the most demanding stages. Well protected by his team-mates in the curbs and on the flat, he offers precious points to the team in the race for the WT before flying to Sicily for a training camp around Etna.
Jesus Herrada was in two breakaways, the last one on the traditional circuit of Barcelona. Hugo Toumire made his debut in the World Tour and has already gained a lot of experience that will be useful in the future.
Belgian classics
It started on Wednesday with the race Brugge De Panne, which ended in a sprint in the streets of the Belgian resort. Max Walscheid and Simone Consonni, very well placed, finished in the top 10, with even a 4th place for our German rider.
On Friday, in the GP E3, the victory was decided between the riders of Jumbo Visma, our riders not being able to get into the fight for the victory despite an early break of Jelle Wallays.
On Sunday, in Ghent Wevelgem, both our men's and women's teams were at the start of this race that passes close to the headquarters of Cofidis. In the men's race, Jelle Wallays was also part of the early break that was caught in the first difficulties of the course and the famous passages to Mount Kemmel. After that, the attacks multiplied and the peloton split up into several parts. Piet Allegaert and Simone Consonni managed to bridge up to this first group, which took 5th place after 4 riders had broken away. Piet and Simone finished 20th and 24th.
In the girls' category, Rachel Neylan tried her luck several times in the last kilometres of the race, but didn't manage to make the difference. She finally finished in the pack of a race that was decided by a sprint.
La Roue Tourangelle
For the next part of the Coupe de France, our riders animated the Touraine wheel by first controlling the peloton all day long and then catching the break. Once the regrouping was done, Eddy Finé, Benjamin Thomas and Anthony Perez launched Bryan Coquard and Axel Zingle to the front. Together with 3 other riders, they had a 20s advantage and were only caught in the last 2 kilometres. Bryan still found the resources to sprint and finish 2nd, a new podium for him. The French Cup continues on the Adélie road next Friday.
