Three weeks and 3,300 kilometers later, the 2024 Giro d’Italia came to an end on Sunday in the streets of Rome, just next to the Colosseum. The Groupama-FDJ cycling team tried once last time to get organized for its New Zealander Laurence Pithie, but he did not benefit from a good enough positioning to fight at the front in the sprint. He therefore obtained thirteenth place and the team thus completed this edition with three top-10s.
The day after the final mountain stage in Veneto, the peloton was set to meet in the Italian capital in the middle of the afternoon, on Sunday, to cover the last 125 kilometres of the Giro. The race turned out to be quite relative during the first fifty kilometres, with pictures and glasses of champagne all over the place. The proper racing only started upon arrival on the finishing circuit and four riders then took the lead: Alex Baudin, Ewen Costiou, Mikkel Honoré and Martin Marcellusi. The peloton took no risks and eventually brought everyone back shortly before the last lap, made of about ten kilometres. “We were focused on the sprint,” said Frédéric Guesdon. “As every time since the start of the Giro, as soon as there was an opportunity to achieve a result in the sprint, it was all for Laurence. Unfortunately, we were a little outflanked, which sums up a bit our Giro. The guys tried, worked well, but we came against stronger than us every time.” On Sunday, Groupama-FDJ took control of the peloton in the last five kilometres, but Laurence Pithie couldn’t stay in the first ten positions before the last technical kilometre. He therefore sprinted in the background and obtained 13th place.
“The group was also there to learn”, Frédéric Guesdon
It was therefore without a victory or a stage podium that Groupama-FDJ, whose average age was about twenty-five years old on this first Grand Tour of the season, left the Italian roads on Sunday evening. “From a results point of view, it’s not a very good balance,” confesses Frédéric. “We came here to do much better than that. In the end, we got two fourth places and an eighth place. However, we must recall that this was a rather young squad and that we did not have any climbers, which immediately took us several stages away. We could only fight on the sprint stages, but Laurence was not 100% from the start and there were already 3-4 chances in the first week. This did not play into our advantage. When you are not 100% in this type of race, it strongly reduces your chances. The group was also there to learn and there is still some satisfaction, with Enzo, the fact that we finished with seven guys, and the guys gave their maximum over these three weeks”.
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