In Pinerolo, on Sunday, “La Conti” Groupama-FDJ concluded a very lively week of racing in the Giro Next Gen. Unfortunately, the French squad was unable to achieve the goals it had set for itself at the start, notably due to Maxime Decomble’s illness. Rémi Daumas eventually achieved the best overall ranking, with a twenty-first place finish, which also gives some hopes for the future.
At the end of stage five, during which he took part in the breakaway and claimed tenth place, Rémi Daumas had climbed to twenty-second overall in the Giro Next Gen. The ambitions of the 19-year-old were then to aim higher. On paper, however, it wasn’t the sixth stage, towards Acqui Terme on Friday, that seemed likely to make real differences, despite two climbs in the final. On the road, there was indeed very little selection in the peloton, while a 12-man breakaway fought for the win. Rémi Daumas finished in the pack and still gained two places (20th). However, it was mostly on Saturday, towards Prato Nevoso, that the race was set to be decided. “It was the queen stage with 4,000 metres of elevation gain and a final climb of thirty-five minutes,” explained Jérôme Gannat. “We knew Rémi wasn’t capable of fighting with the best on a climb like that, and we could have got fifteenth or so if he had stayed in the peloton. The strategy was to take more risks to take a lead before the final climb and, why not, fight for the victory.”
“We have to come back stronger next year,” Jérôme Gannat
The first mission was completed by Rémi Daumas, who managed to join a solid breakaway. “However, there was never a big gap,” Jérôme said. “Then, Aubin Sparfel and the future winner, Pavel Novak, came back to the front. So it was the right strategy, but Novak was very strong because he lost almost nothing on the favourites on the final climb.” Dropped with about twenty kilometres to go by the Czech’s furious pace, Rémi Daumas was caught by the GC men and ultimately reached the summit in 33rd position, 9’40 behind the winner. “It was still the right thing to do,” Jérôme explained. “You always have to be aggressive and join the breakaway to try to win races.” The young rider also maintained his twentieth place overall before the last, explosive stage scheduled on Sunday around Pinerolo. In the final, the riders had to complete two laps of a circuit including the Prarostino climb (2.5 km at 12%) and the San Maurizio climb (500 m at 10%). “Maxime first took the breakaway, which was again the objective, but the GC teams pulled hard to make the peloton explode, which left no chance for the break,” explained Jérôme.
In the final forty kilometres, “La Conti” was therefore unable to take part in the fight between the top riders. “On such slopes, the damage is done very fast,” added Jérôme. “From the first climb, the first seven riders on GC found themselves in front, and it was in pieces behind. We knew it was going to be hard for us, especially since Rémi doesn’t particularly like this type of climb.” The latter eventually reached the finish line 5’28 behind the stage winner Jørgen Nordhagen and the overall winner Jakob Omrzel, losing just one spot in the general classification (21st). “We obviously didn’t come for this, as Romain Grégoire would say,” smiled Jérôme. “The goal was to get into the top 5 with Maxime Decomble. When we put everything into perspective, it would probably have been possible to get into the top 10, but the fact that he fell ill at the start of the week, after a good time trial, undermined our strategy. We also realized that we weren’t quite there physically speaking. We still have to move up a level and come back stronger next year. The positive things are the opening time trial, with the triple top-10, and Rémi’s week. He took the right breakaways, he was there, combative, and didn’t give up. He’s only 19 years old and the future looks bright for him.”