Paul Lapeira
«I had been dreaming of this title for several months.»
«It's incredible, I've been dreaming about this title for months. There's a world of difference between dreaming and doing it, but the team ran the perfect race, there wasn't a single misstep. Personally, I wanted to run a little differently from the big names who were considered favourites. That's what I did, and I ended up with Nicolas Prodhomme in the final. He did a great job and I was able to finish strong, so it's fantastic. It's a finish I know by heart, I could have done it with my eyes closed. I knew how to manoeuvre and when Julien Bernard attacked with 500 metres to go, I had to make an effort to catch up because he was very strong. But once I was back, I knew I couldn't let it slip away.‘
Vincent Lavenu
«We work all year round for this.»
«We've been waiting seventeen years for this title. We've won it twice in thirty-two years, so it's very rare. It's quite an incredible moment because we know we'll be representing France for a whole year. We knew it was going to be a difficult challenge, but we also knew we had a very strong team. The plan, which was perfectly written by the sporting directors, Julien Jurdie and Stéphane Goubert, was followed to the letter. We had someone at the front from the start, so we never panicked. We controlled the situation, we rode behind the whole time and the plan, as we executed it, was a success. It's a really good moment in our career, we work all year for this.»
The information
Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen, King of Denmark
Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen, rider for the DECATHLON AG2R LA MONDIALE Development team, became Danish road race champion this afternoon. He beat Kasper Asgreen (stage winner in the Tour de France and Tour of Flanders), Michael Valgren (winner of the Amstel Gold Race and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad), Magnus Cort Nielsen (stage winner in all three Grand Tours) and Mads Pedersen (world champion, two-time winner of Gent-Wevelgem and two-time stage winner in the Tour de France).
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The figure
Three riders from the team finished in the top 10 of the French Championships road race. In addition to Paul Lapeira's title, Benoît Cosnefroy finished seventh and Pierre Gautherat ninth.
