Eager to take on the cobbles in his native region, Axel Huens lived up to his own expectations this Thursday at the Grand Prix de Denain. First seen at the front when the race exploded 50 kilometres from the finish—although he was unable to follow the leading duo—the rider from Groupama-FDJ United held his position all the way to the line in a reduced peloton and ultimately finished seventh. It marks a second top-10 finish in two days for the team, ahead of the Bredene Koksijde Classic on Friday.
Less than a month before the “Hell of the North,” riders had a full-scale rehearsal this Thursday with the second round of the FDJ United Series, the Grand Prix de Denain–Porte du Hainaut. No fewer than 23 kilometres of cobbles, spread across 13 sectors, were on the menu—mainly in the second half of the race. The real difficulties only began with 90 kilometres to go, but the battle started much earlier in the peloton. “It was a long fight to form the breakaway,” confirmed Frédéric Guesdon. “We wanted to try to get someone in it, because it sometimes goes far in this race. We had to avoid being caught out. Titouan and Bastien tried, but in the end Blake made it into an initial move of eight riders with the right teams. However, the peloton immediately chased behind with the teams that had missed out, and after more than 60 kilometres, a nine-man breakaway finally went. The peloton never gave them more than two minutes, which helped keep the pace high.” Before hitting the cobbles, Groupama-FDJ United lost Matteo Milan due to a crash, and the nervousness began to rise. “Positioning is never easy before the first sectors because everyone wants to be at the front, but we weren’t too bad, especially with Axel and Thibaud, who were our protected riders today,” added Frédéric.
“Axel rode the race he had to” – Frédéric Guesdon
The duo responded to the first accelerations, and Axel Huens even tried to anticipate with a group of about ten riders around 65 kilometres from the finish. However, the peloton regrouped before the decisive sequence of sectors 8, 7, and 6. It was indeed in sector 7, from Maing to Quérénaing, that everything blew apart. Per Strand Hagenes increased the pace and the peloton quickly shattered. “Axel was well positioned and made the effort to get back on,” Frédéric explained. “A group of four got away, but that’s when Axel felt that Hagenes was a level above. He pushed again, while Axel needed a moment to recover. Then Alec Segaert came back very fast from behind, and we weren’t able to follow him either. Still, what Axel did was good, because we needed to be alert at that moment, and it was worth trying to follow.” From then on, a clear race situation emerged, with two riders up front and a reduced peloton behind. “We were in the mix with Axel, Thibaud, and Cyril,” Frédéric said. “But we lost Bastien to a puncture in sector six, which was unfortunate. Then it was about understanding who was still in the peloton. UAE took up the pace, we waited for things to settle, and then it became lively again in a sector—Thibaud followed and then counterattacked on the road.”
The young Frenchman broke away with half a dozen others but couldn’t make it stick, and it was the next move that proved successful. “At that moment, we weren’t vigilant enough and missed the counterattack,” Frédéric admitted. “So we had to sacrifice Cyril, who joined the chase.” With 10 kilometres to go, the Segaert–Hagenes duo had around a 30-second lead over the chasers and one minute over a 30-rider peloton, but the two groups merged six kilometres from the finish. “We still had two good cards to play for a strong result, but unfortunately Thibaud crashed with three kilometres to go, leaving us with only Axel,” Frédéric added. While Hagenes was caught, Segaert managed to hold on solo to the finish, and the peloton sprinted for the remaining places just two seconds later. Well positioned, Axel Huens gave it everything and secured seventh place. “It’s a good result—he rode the race he had to and finished where he belongs,” concluded Frédéric. “He confirms he’s an important part of this group. Maybe there was potential for more, but it could also have been worse. The disappointment is for Thibaud—without his crash, we might have had two riders in the top 10.”
