Circuit Franco-Belge – A Tough Day

It was a tough day for the Cofidis team on the Belgian roads of the Franco-Belgian Circuit. On Wednesday, June 10, between Tournai and Mont-de-l’Enclus, the team wanted to make an impact on the race, but that wasn’t the case. 

Sébastien Demarbaix, sports director: 
"We had a hard time getting into the race; it was a bit disorganized, I’d say. We weren’t riding together enough, and the race was a bit—I’d say—sluggish because it was tightly controlled, especially by the NSN Cycling Team and Lotto Intermarché. So there was a breakaway—there were 10 of them—but their maximum lead was two minutes. The pace was pretty high the whole time, even on the fairly difficult circuit.
There was very little movement because the pace was so high. I think in total there were only five or six guys who managed to get a 15- or 20-second lead on the peloton, no more. So it was constantly whittling down from the back, and we ended up with a group of 45–50 riders for the sprint.

Unfortunately, we lost Clément Izquierdo two kilometers out. He went into the grass; he didn't fall, but he just got dropped like that. In the final kilometer for positioning, Clément was supposed to handle it, but instead Dylan Teuns and Edoardo Zampérini tried to set up Alex Aramburu. He lost them and couldn’t launch his sprint. Alex just returned from a high-altitude training camp and wasn’t feeling great today. We shouldn’t always look for excuses either, but I suppose things will go better in the next race. We’re still coming away with a pretty negative result today since we didn’t make an impact on the race and we didn’t get any results either. So, I’d say it’s a day to forget."