In Les Herbiers, Rémi Cavagna aimed to take back the French time trial champion’s jersey on Thursday. Initially in the mix and totally in the running for a podium finish, the Frenchman eventually cracked in the final part of the race, finishing fourth in the time trial, fifty seconds behind winner Bruno Armirail, and six seconds behind the bronze medal. Thibaud Gruel (6th) and Maxime Decomble (8th) finished in the day’s top-10.
The 2025 edition of the French Time Trial Championship was quite unique as it featured an exceptionally short course—the shortest in at least thirty years. Yet it was in the town of Les Herbiers, where is organized every year the pretty long Chrono des Nations, that the event took place on Thursday, over just 26.5 kilometres, but with 400 metres of elevation gain, numerous false flats, and a challenging climb after fifteen kilometres. Maximilian Cushway, a member of “La Conti”, was the first rider wearing the Groupama-FDJ jersey to tackle this circuit just after 4 p.m. Then followed Titouan Fontaine, Clément Davy, Oscar Nilsson-Julien, Eddy Le Huitouze, Enzo Paleni, Rémi Daumas, Thibaud Gruel, Maxime Decomble, and finally Rémi Cavagna, at 4:43 p.m. Before the big fight among the favourites, Enzo Paleni achieved a solid time of 33:55, then Thibaud Gruel set the second fastest provisional time with 33:28, and the youngster Maxime Decomble found himself in-between with a mark of 33:48.
“Rémi switched off mentally,” Joseph Berlin-Sémon
Among the contenders for the French title, Rémi Cavagna got off to a solid start. “I was feeling pretty good,” he said. “I had a good first half, I was comfortable with my pace.” “He got off to a good start, he was second, less than ten seconds behind Bruno [Armirail] on the first two timing points,” added Joseph Berlin-Sémon. “We knew the second half of the race was very important, and he was actually managing the first half.” However, at the top of the day’s main climb, the Auvergne native dropped back to third place, six seconds behind Kevin Vauquelin and sixteen seconds behind Bruno Armirail. “After going over the hill, he completely switched off mentally,” explained Joseph. “He felt he was no longer able to pick up speed and pace in those sections where you really needed to be able to push on. He lost a lot of time, including in the last 3-4 kilometres.” “I kind of eased off on this portion,” confirmed Rémi. “I lost seconds very quickly and I realized I was no longer in the running. I don’t come to a championship to finish second or third, so when I know I’m no longer in the running, it’s difficult to stay on track.”
“It’s hard to accept”, Rémi Cavagna
At the finish line, the “TGV de Clermont-Ferrand” lost third place to Paul Seixas by six seconds, with a time of 33:06, while Bruno Armirail won in 32:16. “In a championship, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” Rémi added. “Today it didn’t. I worked hard on my time trial after the Dauphiné, I rode every day on the TT bike, I made a lot of sacrifices. I was really confident coming here, and so it’s hard to accept such a defeat. It’s obviously disappointing considering all the work I’ve put in, and it doesn’t confirm the progress I’ve made this year. There’s one more race on Sunday, and we have ambitions as a team, so we’ll have to refocus.” “We came to win, our ambitions were clear,” Joseph added. “He had prepared for this, he was ready. Given his recent performances, especially in the Dauphiné, and what he had been doing in training over the last few weeks, we were pretty confident. The gap is very significant today, but from what I saw of his numbersat the finish, we are far from a great performance. On a good day, he would have been there to fight for the title. For sure it’s frustrating, Rémi is more disappointed than any one of us, but we will bounce back.”Among the satisfactions, Thibaud Gruel (6th) and Maxime Decomble (8th) finished in the top 10, and Enzo Paleni (11th) just outside. “We were hoping to have a few guys in the top 10, especially them,” concluded Joseph. “We knew that Thibaud was pretty good in the time trial, he has constantly improved over the last two years. So I’m not really surprised to see him at this place. We also know the qualities of Maxime as a time trialist, he’s the French U23 champion. The small unknown was how he had recovered from the Giro Next Gen, but today he confirmed his qualities. The same goes for Enzo. We can still gain a few seconds and a few positions, but for now, there is a race on Sunday and we are already focused on that.”
