More than a month after his last race, “La Conti” returned to competition on Sunday on the Grand Prix de la Ville de Pérenchies. In the North department, Jérôme Gannat’s men tackled the cobblestones and put on a strong team performance throughout the day. This resulted in Reef Roberts placing fifth, after having been in the lead for much of the race, while Matt Walls (8th) and Eliott Boulet (12th) finished not far behind their teammate from New Zealand.
After achieving a one-two finish in 2022 and placing two guys in the top-10 in 2023, “La Conti” Groupama-FDJ was back on the Grand Prix de la ville de Pérenchies on Sunday after missing it last year. A route very similar to previous editions was on the menu around the French town: an initial twelve-kilometre circuit without difficulty was to be covered six times, then a second fifteen-kilometre circuit including a “rough” cobbled section of 1000 metres was to be covered seven times. “There were a lot of attacks at the start and the first hour was raced at an average speed of over 50 km/h,” Jérôme Gannat explained. Titouan Fontaine was briefly part of a three-man breakaway, Oscar Nilsson-Julien also gave it a go, but it was on the last lap of the first circuit that a group of eleven men finally broke away, including Reef Roberts. This breakaway managed to take a one-minute lead as the second circuit approached. “Not much happened on the first lap,” said Jérôme. “However, it exploded on the second one, and a group of thirty riders or so formed behind the breakaway. We were in a good situation at that point because we had four men in the peloton: Matt [Walls], Eliott [Boulet], Titouan, and Blake [Agnoletto], who was doing his first race with us.”
“A very good performance from Reef,” Jérôme Gannat
Unfortunately, over the next two laps, “La Conti” lost Blake Agnoletto and Titouan Fontaine due to punctures. “The chasing group reduced, there were only a dozen of riders left, and just before they bridged across, Reef went away on the cobbled sector with four other riders from the breakaway,” said Jérôme. “They were eventually caught, but only by eight riders, including Matt and Eliott.” Approaching the final lap of the circuit, the French squad therefore had three men in a leading group of thirteen. “Nothing happened in the last cobbled sector; they were still thirteen, but then the attacks started, and five riders, including Reef, broke away about six kilometres from the finish line,” Jérôme added. “This group eventually fought for victory. It wasn’t necessarily ideal for us because we had the sprint option with Matt, but it was very tactical. Five teams were represented with at least two riders, everyone had someone in front, and nobody wanted to pull. It’s easy to say afterwards that we should have gone for the sprint, but when you have someone in front, you don’t necessarily want to ride behind. Matt was perhaps also a bit tired towards the end”.In Pérenchies, a group of five men battled for victory, and cyclo-cross specialist Toon Vandebosch claimed it. Reef Roberts had to settle for fifth place, while Matt Walls and Eliott Boulet took 8th and 12th places respectively. “It’s a very good performance from Reef,” concluded Jérôme. “It’s his first result in a road race with the team, after his tenth place in the time trial at the Giro NextGen. It’s the first time that he’s been in the running for the win and that he finished in the top five, all that after leading the race, in the breakaway, on the cobblestones, and then in the final. And he’s only 19 years old. That’s the positive from today. That being said, we probably deserved better given the team’s performance during the day, as we were one of the teams that had the most impact on the race.”