The Tour of Spain being finished and the World’s Championships opening in a few days in Australia, the timing was perfect for a return of Cyrille Guimard on Cyclism’News ! The coronation of Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) sur the returnthe riddle Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), the selection of Thomas Voeckler for the World’s Championshipswith the presence of Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) et l’absence de Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën Team)… many very interesting topics were discussed by the Druid… and it is to be found in your video!
Video – Cyrille Guimard… after the Vuelta and before the Worlds!
Remco Evenepoel, King of Spain: “This victory is completely logical”
To see him on the first step of the podium is not very surprising. His journey from the age of 17 until today is such that it was hard to imagine that he would not win a Grand Tour. And it is also difficult to imagine today that he will not win several. He confirms everything he has demonstrated since the age of 17-18 when he was in Juniors, we are not going to go back on his record which is certainly the richest in this category. This victory is therefore quite logical, even if we would have liked to see a Roglic in combat on the last mountain stages.
Evenepoel was however perfectly serene, he mastered his difficult passages well, but this serenity is quite normal since despite his 22 years, he already has experience of the biggest world events. Afterwards, it’s easy to manage well when you have 50 watts more than your opponents… He also has qualities that allow him, even in difficult times, to master the situation
Evenepoel on the Tour in 2023? : “If Evenepoel says he wants to do the Tour…”
Patrick Lefevere (general manager of the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team, editor’s note) will do according to a certain number of criteria (marketing, its workforce…) but if Evenepoel says that he wants to do the Tour, I’m not sure that Lefevere will answer him ‘no, you’re going to do the Tour of Italy’. Afterwards, Evenepoel can very well do the Tour of Spain, the Tour of Italy and the Tour de France, that doesn’t bother me. But that is communication, Lefevere knows how to do it.
Will Quick-Step and Lefevere have to change their philosophy to support Evenepoel? Lefevere will always have a certain tenderness for the Flandrian classics, he is Flemish, it’s his culture, but when we start talking about victory in the Tour de France, the Tour of Flanders becomes much less important. Winning the Tour of Flanders is very good, it’s even a kind of Holy Grail for the Flemings, but if we look at what’s been happening since Sunday, I have the impression that the Flemings, and the Belgians in general, were more impressed by Evenepoel’s victory in La Vuelta than by that of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. If he wins the Tour de France four times, we won’t care if he never wins the Tour of Flanders, and Patrick Lefevere won’t care either. It’s not the same size.
The Vuelta and the level of Thibaut Pinot: “I think he has not found the desire”
As on the Tour, Pinot has been chasing after stage victories, but he doesn’t have the legs to go after them. He starts in the blows, but he is not the best of the breakaway. It’s not as good as it used to be. It should perhaps not be said, but it is the reality, it is the ground. Why ? I think he hasn’t found the desire, the warrior spirit, this desire to really hurt himself. It feels like a bored racer on his bike. That’s how I feel and I think I’m not the only one. Will Marc Madiot have an important psychological role to play for it to come back? I almost want to say no. I know a little about how Marc works, I think he has already tried…
Julian Alaphilippe will do the Worlds: “Even a diminished Julian remains a dangerous runner…”
Insofar as he was able to resume training and regain all of his driving qualities, his selection is logical. Even a diminished Julian remains a dangerous runner who absolutely must be marked, and then he still has an important role within a group. He is still the boss of the France team, it is difficult to claim otherwise with his two world championship titles. He has an important role with his teammates and in the course of the race, and above all he does not take anyone’s place since as world champion, he was automatically selected (the French team will indeed have nine runners at the start, against eight for the other big nations, editor’s note). So why not take him, even if he’s not 100%? We know that if he can lend a hand in any circumstance of the race, he will do it, with his own state of mind.
💀 Discover the tricolor selection 🇫🇷 for the Road World Championships from September 18 to 25 in Wollongong, Australia 🌈 pic.twitter.com/7NZIAolENn
— FFC (@FFCyclisme) September 13, 2022
The impression left by Julian Alaphilippe on La Vuelta? “I thought he was very, very good”
He arrived with a role of teammate compared to Evenepoel, and he did it perfectly, playing the road captains. I found it to be very, very good. Going to the end of La Vuelta, he would have been 100%, without having had the pressure of the race. Unfortunately, there was this small fall, which we can say is still linked to a lack of concentration at this point since he fell alone in a bend in which there was nothing in particular. . But before that, I had found him very good, and he knew that by working for Evenepoel, he was preparing for the World Championship.
Benoît Cosnefroy said no to the Worlds: “The runner also has the right to think…”
I don’t consider that a rejection. The runner also has the right to have a head, to reflect and to know what is good for him. We have the right to be able to say no, even to the France team. If the World Championships took place in Italy, it would be different, but there in Australia… When you go to a World Cup, you have to go there with real motivation. From the moment when he didn’t have it in his head and when he hadn’t foreseen it, his victory in Quebec can’t call everything into question.
And then I think that the system which had been in place since 1983 and which has been put back in place since I am no longer at the head of the France team (June 30, 2019, editor’s note), it plays. If we had kept the same protocol, we wouldn’t have this kind of situation today. When I was at the head of the French team, the team managers were directly integrated into the selection system and were responsible for the riders in the selection. There, we took over the system from before – because it was very displeasing on a political level – in which the people who pay the runners have no responsibility. The real bosses of the riders are not the Federation, but those who pay them 12 months out of 12. You have to work with these people. I worked for two years and it was great. If we had done that, there wouldn’t be the Cosnefroy problem, it would have been solved before.
Cyrille Guimard regrets the lack of communication from the FFC for the Worlds
We are two weeks away from a World Championship in Australia and for the moment, the Federation has never communicated on the Worlds. However, for two years, we communicated well in advance. Today, if you’re on the pavement radio and if you ask people if they know there’s going to be a World Championship in Australia, tell me the percentage of people who are going to answer… Perhaps you should be that it is also sold. I saw little bits of sentences, little things, but I didn’t see real communication. There were none.
The French team at the Worlds: “Everything will be decided around Julian Alaphilippe”
I think she has a role to play, but it will be different from previous years, where Alaphilippe was captain and leader. There, it will be more difficult, so it will be necessary to race intelligently. But anyway, whether he is able to win or not, everything will be played, strategically speaking, around Julian Alaphilippe. He will be the common thread, but other riders in this selection have great potential to try to be very opportunistic. Opposite, Tadej Pogacar and Wout Van Aert, it’s still more than serious, and then we will have to watch Evenepoel like water on the fire.