In Northampton and Felixstowe, two bunch sprints concluded the Tour of Britain last weekend. “La Conti” Groupama-FDJ took advantage of the last opportunity on Sunday to secure another good result with Noah Hobbs, who came seventh. Ultimately, the French development team completed this experience at ProSeries level with two top-10s and six top-20s.
On Saturday, the day after Noah Hobbs’ fourth place, Jérôme Gannat’s men were ambitious around Northampton, in a relatively flat fifth stage of 150 kilometres. First, Joshua Golliker tried to enter the morning breakaway established by Matthew Holmes, Connor Swift and Rasmus Sojberg Pedersen. “He reacted a little late,” explained Jérôme Gannat. “There were already forty seconds when he attacked, and the gap was a little too small with the peloton for the leading riders to wait for him.” As a result, the Briton found himself in-between for a while, without ever being able to join the breakaway, which was eventually only caught 800 metres from the finish. After a thrilling final, a bunch sprint eventually took place for the second day in a row. “It was a particular sprint, with two corners in the last kilometre, where positioning was very important,” said Jérôme. “Noah didn’t manage to get the right wheel and the team did not manage to lead him out, which resulted in a disappointing sprint. Ronan still finished thirteenth, but we were hoping for more.”
“It was a great experience,” Jérôme Gannat
Another chance was up for grabs on Sunday over 160 kilometres to Felixstowe, on the east coast of England. And although the stage didn’t include any proper difficulty, it still proved eventful. “There was a big breakaway at the start, the peloton had to chase hard and then riders like Pidcock and Bilbao also attacked,” Jérôme reported. “Then there was a split in the peloton, and they were only 30 in front, including Joshua. In the second one, Soudal-Quick Step pulled for Paul Magnier, but they were losing time, so Van Rysel-Roubaix helped in the chase, and so did we with Maxime. A little later, a crash broke up this group, and Lewis was caught behind while the second peloton came back on the first one with forty kilometres to go.” Numerous attacks kept on going in the last hour of racing, notably by Remco Evenepoel, but the bunch finish did indeed take place. “There were only sixty riders left for the win, which was pretty good for us, but on the other hand, Lewis, Noah’s lead-out man, was not there,” said Jérôme. “We missed him a little bit in the final. It was a good opportunity, but Noah was too far back in the corner at 800 metres to hope for a podium.”
On the line, the young British sprinter had to settle for seventh place while Matevž Govekar took the victory. Stephen Williams won the general classification, with Ronan Augé taking 36th place. “This event is very popular, and it was special to race in these conditions,” said Jérôme. “This is the second time we have participated in a ProSeries race after the Arctic Race of Norway last year, and it is very rewarding to compete in this kind of event. It was a great experience. We also had three English riders, and it was important for them. In terms of results, we realized that we didn’t have enough strength when 30-40 riders would find themselves in front on the climbs. Maxime could have been up there, but he started the race a bit sick. For the sprints, we knew that there were opportunities for Noah, but the other sprinters took advantage of strong trains and positioning proved difficult for us. Noah nevertheless obtained two top-10s and Ronan was consistent in the last three sprints (14th, 13th, 12th, editor’s note). It was a high-level event with exceptional riders, but the guys also realized that there is still a big room for improvement”.
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