Clément Braz Afonso entered a whole new world last winter: the WorldTour. By joining the Groupama-FDJ cycling team, the 25-year-old puncher reached the elite of cycling and has been enjoying it for several months. He agreed to tell us about his experience throughout the year through a Road Diary. This is the fourth episode.
In my last post, I started talking about the French Championship. It’s always a special moment. You meet up with all the French riders from the team, including those from “La Conti.” There’s also the entire staff. That’s a huge number of people, and I think we had the whole hotel to ourselves. We really felt like we were in a bubble. The day before the race, Marc [Madiot] did his speech. This is an opportunity for him to motivate us as much as possible. He knows how to do that, with his words. He is driven by cycling and you can feel it. He is able to give you goosebumps, especially when you discover him. This is the second time I have seen him doing it, and it is quite impressive. He likes to remind us that Groupama-FDJ is a French team, and that it has a strong link with the French championship. He also tries to string some riders’ pride to make them bounce back. He can remind us of difficult moments to bring out the “grit” on the big day. During this French championship, we also launched the new team jersey with the FDJ United logo. It is yet another package, and I will be able to start sharing with young kids because I really have a lot of kits! The old ones are out of date, and it is better not to be seen with it! Personally, I tried to be methodical. I put all my old kits aside. At least I’m sure I won’t get mixed up.
“I’ve seen Romain more disappointed on other occasions”
We were obviously on the championship to win. To come second or third in this race isn’t interesting. We had two leaders: First Romain, then Valentin. We had planned a tactical move that we managed to pull off, with a split at kilometre 130. Everything was set, even if we had to postpone it by a lap. We had a few talks with the team’s road captains like Clément [Russo], Romain, and Valentin. We were a little apprehensive about going for it, but as I remember, Clément Russo said, “Come on, let’s try.” Three kilometres later, we were getting into position. The goal was to have guys capable of pushing on the climb, maintaining a strong pace on the descent, and then keeping it going. I was supposed to make a big pull at the top of the climb, if necessary, but I didn’t make the cut. Fourteen guys went, including thirteen from Groupama-FDJ. We gave it a go, but we were probably missing some strong cards at the front. This group was caught by part of the peloton, in several moves, after a big acceleration on the finishing climb a few kilometres later. I managed to come back, but it was a long and tough effort. Two or three laps from the finish, I didn’t have much left in the tank and had to let go.
Up front, the guys did their best, and I don’t think we have much to regret regarding Romain’s second place. We were perhaps lacking a few riders in the final, and guys capable of winning. We can always say something went wrong, but I think we still did a good race. Romain is always disappointed when he doesn’t succeed, we were all disappointed, but we have to admit that Godon was strong, and I feel like I’ve seen Romain more disappointed on other occasions. My parents were 200 metres down the finish line that day. Just after the finish, I was called for the doping control and was unable to go and see them. There were loads of people at the control, but luckily the doctor was there, I was able to call them and let them know I was there so they could come and see me before leaving. To finish with this weekend, we took the gamble of taking the 11 p.m. flight to Nice with Rudy. Clément Russo was more cautious and had decided to sleep in Nantes and take the next morning’s flight. Of course, what had to happen happened, and the flight was announced with a two-hour delay. We didn’t even know if it was going to take off and Clément Russo was of course laughing at us. Eventually, we left around 1 a.m., and fortunately so, because otherwise it would have been a double sanction: sleeping in Nantes and not being able to take the next day’s flight at 7 a.m., since it was full. We arrived at 2 a.m., but we were happy to have been able to go home.
“It was my first time on a proper altitude training camp”
The French Championship also marked the end of my first half of the season, and it was an opportunity for me to take stock of the first few months with the team, all the races I’d been able to ride, and what I’d managed to achieve (or not) for the team and from a personal perspective. My conclusion was that it was mostly positive, and that I needed to take the time to recover properly to tackle the second half of the season, with my first Grand Tour in sight. After the Championship, I took a week off and went to Barcelonnette with my girlfriend. It’s a bit of a tradition for me to go on vacation in the mountains at the beginning of July, before starting the second half of the season. I didn’t even take the bike. I really took the opportunity to recharge my batteries. After that, I got back to training easily, and then it was already time to leave for the altitude training camp in Tignes, starting on July 11th. At first, we were acclimatizing without the team, with Thibaud and Brieuc, then David, Rémi, and Rudy arrived. We rented a small chalet, then joined the team on the 16th. During this acclimatization period, the bike rides went from 1h30 to 3h, at a fairly easy pace. Then, when the team arrived, we started to increase the workload.
I had done a week’s training camp in La Toussuire four years ago, but La Toussuire is only 1,700 metres above sea level. So, it was my first time on a proper, complete, twenty-day altitude training camp. I was really excited to try it out, because it’s almost a prerequisite in any career these days. I was eager to discover the local roads, even though I already knew quite a few: the Col d’Iseran, Bourg-Saint Maurice, the Petit Saint Bernard. And most of all, I was happy to be back with the team with this “Vuelta preparation” goal and to be 100% focused on it. We really had great support, with the chef, the assistants, the physiotherapists, the coaches, and the mechanics. I was both excited, but also a little apprehensive about this altitude training camp, because there are also a lot of new concepts you need to learn. They measure a lot of things to make sure everything is going well, like oxygen saturation, blood sugar level, etc. All of this affects whether we can start training the next day, or whether the session will be adapted. For instance, the basic energy expenditure is higher. We needed to eat more so as not to be in a deficiency situation. You have to learn to work with all these concepts.
“David wanted to place monumental steles all the time”
We sometimes went down to ride in the valley, but we still spent a lot of time at altitude. We climbed the Col de l’Iseran, at 2,700 metres, several times, we did the Cormet de Roselend, the Petit Saint Bernard. We were sometimes in altitude, sometimes at the bottom, but still often in altitude! Personally, I felt the effects of the altitude most at night, at the accommodation. The mountain air is dry, it clears your throat a little, it’s sometimes a little harder to breathe, but you get used to it. I just felt limp two or three days after the start of the camp. I came back from an afternoon ride, and I really wanted to sleep. I was exhausted. So, the next day, we adjusted the training session. Fortunately, there was a rest day afterward, so I was able to recover. After that, things went pretty well for me, and I was able to complete the sessions without being too destroyed. I remember a great 6h30 ride with more than 4000 metres of elevation gain. We also did some nice rides in Italy, with the San Carlo, the Petit Saint Bernard – of course we took a picture with the dog statue -. We also shared some great moments off the bike. The atmosphere was really good with the riders and the staff. In a small group, it’s easier to get together. We already know each other a little from the races, but twenty days together is different from a week. We have more time to open up. In a way, we also prepared ourselves to spend this month together on the Vuelta. It was a great training camp on a human level.
After dinner, we usually had herbal tea together and shared stories. Then, we would go for a short walk around the lake. These were really good times and they’re also what strengthens a team. We went out a few times in Tignes, we did an electric mountain bike ride. There was a bar nearby, where we sometimes went for a drink or played pool and darts. Among the fun times, we also rode a few gravel sections with the road bikes. We could afford it because we knew we had the car behind us. It allowed us to discover some nice spots. During the 6h30 ride, we could eat a nice blueberry pie, which the staff found in the valley, at the top of a path. We also had a little game between us which was to “put steles”. Meaning, if a guy was dropped, he was entitled to his own memorial stele with his photo on the side of the road. Obviously, we didn’t actually leave anything, but we did some photomontage, and it was a lot of fun. Well… Sometimes it was dishonest because some guys were putting memorial steles while you just didn’t want to fight. David was really amused by it. He wanted to place memorial steles all the time. It’s probably the leader’s spirit to want to crush the others! (laughs) Apart from that, we of course watched the stage finishes of the Tour de France together in the living room. Obviously, you get excited for your mates through the screen. We were all in front of the TV when Romain crashed in Pontarlier, and we were all gutted for him…
“Everything came together perfectly, it was really enjoyable”
Overall, I was very happy with this experience. It was really nice to be in such an environment, especially in Tignes, which isn’t lost in the middle of nowhere. Does that make me want to do it again in the future? Maybe, because I love being in the mountains anyway, but for sure it can sometimes seem long. It’s the same routine for three weeks. The last few days were different for Brieuc and me because we were going straight to the Clasica San Sebastian. We had some lighter rides, then we traveled to Biarritz on Thursday. We did another 1h30-2h ride when we arrived, then a warm-up the day before the race. Right after coming back from the training camp, I didn’t feel much of a physical difference. However, during the race, I have to admit that the feelings were less good than at any other time of the season. I suffered during the race and didn’t manage to get over the main climb, while the goal was to be in sufficient numbers to help Romain. After the training camp, I felt like that once I was doing a big effort, I didn’t have much left in me. In San Sebastian, I put a lot of effort into the climb, and it only got worse from there. Romain finished fifteenth in the end. There were doubts after his crash in the Tour; he had stitches, but when he’s the leader, he fights hard to thank his teammates for their hard work. He doesn’t give up.
The goal was then to recover as much as possible for the Tour de l’Ain. We got there motivated for the first stage and had a well-established plan that was executed to perfection. We weren’t the best on the climb, but we fought hard to remain close to the front at the top and bridge across in the descent. Then we put the plan into practice in the final. We chose to pull from the bottom of the descent because we had almost the entire team, and the goal was to not let the second group come back because there were Vendrame’s teammates. The other goal was to not get back too soon on the last attacker, so that the team lead-out train could come in the timing we had planned. We also knew that to carry out our plan successfully, Vendrame shouldn’t be in Tom’s wheel. The ideal scenario was for us to take the last corner in the lead, for him to be a little far behind, and for a small split to create. Everything was planned, everything came together perfectly, and it’s really enjoyable when it goes like that. Tom won, David finished two, Lorenzo came four. It was a textbook win.
“You have to trust the altitude process”
We were really happy for Tom because we know he’s a real talent. He’s shown us that several times during training camps, and we were looking forward to him showing it in races after a difficult start to the season. I remember David saying at the briefing that day: “Guys, Tom and Clément are here, we’re sure to win.” We laughed about it, but it worked from the first day! I remember saying in this Road Diary that you need to enjoy when things work out, because they don’t always do. You really have to feed off successes because you never know what the next day will bring. We learned that the hard way during the second stage. It was a bad day; nothing went right. Tom crashed at the start, Rémy got a puncture, I had a mechanical problem, David wasn’t feeling well and was dropped. Brieuc was the only one who managed to represent the team properly when things exploded, but at the bottom of the final climb, he cramped up and had to stop by the side of the road. We were hoping to get back on track on Friday, but we couldn’t. Personally, I felt really bad that day. I was out of energy and decided to abandon.
It hurt because it was my first abandon among the pros, but I thought that there was no point in pushing on. The training camp was a first for me, and I didn’t know how my body would react. You know there can be downturns when you come back from altitude. We didn’t expect to have this level at the Tour de l’Ain, but we have a great staff who remind us that we shouldn’t focus on the present but also look to the longer term. At the same time, it worked out pretty well on the Tour de Pologne for guys like Rudy or Thibaud, who were at the training camp with us. It’s a case-by-case basis. You have to trust the altitude process. I spoke with the staff, no one is really worried. It’s entirely possible to have a downturn and then bounce back and be at the top of your game at the start of the Vuelta. That being said, it’s still hard in terms of confidence because it was our last race before the Vuelta, and luckily we won on the first day! I took advantage of the week following the Tour de l’Ain to take a break, reset, and spend time with my girlfriend. I’ve resumed training fairly easily and have increased the intensity a bit as the Vuelta approached.
“For a joke, I wrote: See you at the Vuelta in 2023”
As I speak, I haven’t yet made the trip to Torino, where the start will be, and I’ll also have to manage everything that goes with a Grand Tour, with these first few days on-site, the presentation, and the media, but I have experienced teammates to guide me. I feel both apprehension and excitement. There will still be time to clarify my role, but for sure we’re going with David and Guillaume as leaders. My goal will be to support them as much as possible, and if the opportunity arises to break away and do something on certain stages, I’ll take it if the team allows me to, and if I have the ability. I’m a little apprehensive about the length of the race because I’ve never ridden for that long in competition, and also about the WorldTour tempo that will repeat not for one week, but for three. As I already did at the Dauphiné, it will be important to know how to take “easy” days, by easing off on certain climbs to try to conserve my strength. The older guys told me: “you’ll see, on the first rest day, you’re crushed but it’s okay, but after the second rest day, you don’t even want to get back on the bike.” I’ll try to apply the advice I’ll be given and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the last week goes well for me.
Of course, I’m really proud to be at the start of the Vuelta. To be competing in my first Grand Tour in my first year with a WorldTour team is awesome. I think what I achieved on the Dauphiné, especially on the last weekend, proved to the team that they could trust me for the Vuelta, and I hope to repay that trust. Racing these three weeks will also allow me to develop my strength, and that can only be beneficial for next season. And then, I have a little story to finish with. Back in 2019, I was a student, out in the evening with some friends who took a construction site sign. I remember writing on it, for a joke: See you at the Vuelta in 2023. At the time, I was starting to perform a bit in cycling, and I said to myself: four years is more or less the time I’m giving myself to join the WorldTour and participate in the Vuelta. I signed next to this little note, and this moment was captured by a picture (which I’ll let you enjoy next to this paragraph). It’s still amazing, because even if I didn’t manage to keep my promise exactly – by two years -, I’m now about to participate in the Vuelta, and I’ve reached this level. My friends still have this sign, and if they come to see me at the Vuelta, they’ll certainly bring it, and it will definitely be a nice nod.
