The years go by and unfortunately don’t always look alike. A year after David Gaudu’s superb overall podium, Groupama-FDJ didn’t prove as successful on the 2024 edition of “Paris-Nice”. On Sunday, the Frenchman was even unable to take the start, Kevin crashed out, and the team couldn’t fight for the first positions in the final stage won by Remco Evenepoel. Quentin Pacher still fought to the end to secure top-20 overall, won by Matteo Jorgenson.
While waiting to see if a few sunrays awaited them on the Promenade des Anglais, the riders still in contention in Paris-Nice on Sunday enjoyed a cleared-up sky at the start of the final stage, for 109 kilometers of ups and downs. However, the bright spell only lasted a short time, since the weather quickly deteriorated again on the peloton’s route. This last day of racing around Nice also followed the tradition, with intense and continuous action. In the first minutes, Laurence Pithie once again stood out by joining a leading trio, before he was dropped in the first climb. Quentin Pacher then also tried to go on the côte de Levens, slipping into a nice chasing group. “The goal was for the non-climbers to take a small lead in the first fifteen flat kilometres, which Laurence did well,” said Benoît Vaugrenard. “We knew it would be hard to win against the best, so the goal was to take a step ahead and put Quentin or Kevin in a move. We hoped that they would look at each other a little behind, even if there was little chance of that happening. Still, Quentin did very well. He was caught, then was in trouble against the best, but he had a very good stage.”
“Laurence made himself a name to the general public”, Benoît Vaugrenard
Caught on the second climb of the day, that of Châteauneuf, shortly before Kevin Geniets was forced to abandon due to a crash, Quentin Pacher eventually had to let a group of twenty favorites go on the Côte de Berre-les -Alps. The race amongst the best then took over, Remco Evenepoel and Matteo Jorgenson later went together, and the Belgian took the stage while the American sealed the overall victory. The French puncher from Groupama-FDJ got the finish line in Nice, under the long-awaited sunshine, in 28th position. After eight days of racing, he therefore took twentieth place overall. “This week was made of good things, and some less good,” concluded Benoît Vaugrenard. “Among the satisfactions, there is the yellow jersey of Laurence, who made himself a name to the general public. We then had bad luck in the team time trial because I think we deserved better. We witnessed a great team spirit, and I am very happy with the guys. David unfortunately crashed and had to abandon this morning because his physical condition did not allow him to ride 100%. Ultimately, the week’s results are mixed.”
In addition, the results of the medical tests conducted in the afternoon did not reveal any fracture for Kevin Geniets.
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