After showing himself on Thursday with a late attack, Maxime Decomble did even better this Friday on stage 3 of O Gran Camiño. In his favourite discipline, the time trial, the 19-year-old put in a top-notch performance as he took third place of the day, twenty seconds behind the winner Derek Gee. Promoted to the WorldTour team this week, as on the Étoile de Bessèges where he also scored a top 5 on the time trial, the rider from “La Conti” keeps on performing, and now sits in fifth place overall. A tough weekend is now looming.
After two stages that finished in a sprint, a first proper hierarchy in the general classification was expected this Friday in O Gran Camiño. Over the 15.6 kilometres between Ourense and Pereiro de Aguiar, the time trial was definitely set to create some gaps. “The start was a bit technical and fast, then we got quite quickly, after 2.5 kilometers, to the day’s big difficulty: a 5.5-kilometre hill averaging 5%”, explained Joseph Berlin-Sémon, the team’s coach. “It could be a bit scary, but you could still go quite fast up the climb. After that, you had to be able to continue pushing on rolling, straight sections, where aerodynamics were important. Then, the last kilometre was very fast with a very technical descent as well. In the end, this time did not disadvantage the specialists because the climb could be done with the big gear. It was not a time trial that really favoured the climbers either, given the very flat section, where smaller riders could lose a lot of time.” After Rémi Daumas, Oscar Nilsson-Julien and Max Bock had completed the course in the beginning of the afternoon, Groupama-FDJ was waiting for its major cards from 4pm. “For Maxime, the goal was to get a result,” said Joseph. “We know he is a time trial specialist. The goal was to prove it again today. For Rémy and Clément, the objective was rather to limit the losses overall, because we knew that it would be difficult to get a big result.”
“It is well deserved,” Joseph Berlin-Sémon
Starting at exactly 4:08pm, the man from “La Conti” did meet the expectations. At the intermediate check point, located at the top of the hill, Maxime Decomble set the best time, and he did the same at the finish after a great second part of the race. Thanks to a time of 23’38, he got on the “hot seat”. “I didn’t really know where to expect myself even though I had done a good time trial in Bessèges,” said the young man. “I knew, however, that this time trial that could suit me with the hill and a flat section where you had to be strong. We did a nice recon of the course this morning and I had a good discussion with my coach. Taking the provisional first place was almost necessary if I wanted to score a good result because there were still a lot of guys after me. It was nice to be in the hot seat, I had no pressure.” Young man was finally beaten after about twenty minutes by Davide Piganzoli, then only Derek Gee did better than those two. Maxime Decomble therefore beat Magnus Cort by four seconds to secure his place on the day’s podium, in third position. “I am very happy,” he said, “and I thank the staff who helped me a lot today.” “We knew he was a specialist in the U23 category with his French champion title, and we had already seen that he was capable of producing a very good result among the pros on the Etoile de Bessèges,” added Joseph. “He brought another confirmation today, with a field that was perhaps a little less high-level, but it is well deserved, and it shows that he will have the ability to focus on difficult time trials like this in the future.”
“I hope to keep this white jersey”, Maxime Decomble
At only 19 years old, he secured his first top 3 in the pro ranks, and also enjoyed his very first ceremony. “It’s his first white jersey and it’s always nice to get on the podium with Magnus Cort and Derek Gee when you’re a very young rider”, added Joseph. “It’s a little bonus for him and for the team and we’ll see what we can do in the coming days”. “I hope to at least keep this white jersey, said Maxime. “Tomorrow, there’s a tough race, it could suit me but Rémy and Clément are still the leaders“. Thanks to his performance on Friday, Maxime Decomble now sits in fifth place overall, thirty-nine seconds behind Derek Gee, while Rémy Rochas and Clément Braz Afonso are around twentieth place, a minute or so back. “They both struggled and lost a lot of time on the flat section today, but that was predictable,” concluded Joseph Berlin-Sémon. “There’s a gap with Gee but there’s a hard stage tomorrow. It’s going to be dynamic, and everything’s still possible.”
