Until the final few hundred metres, Thibaud Gruel was in the mix for the win in front of his public, in Paris-Tours, on Sunday. After a superb race, and a joint attack with Paul Lapeira more than 35 kilometres from the finish, the young rider from Tours held the lead of the French Classic until the flamme rouge. Caught at the last minute by a chasing quartet, he used his last bullets in the sprint but had to settle for fifth place. An excellent result, but an even more remarkable performance.
The final flag-drop on French soil was scheduled for this Sunday. As usual, it was in Paris-Tours that the peloton closed the French road racing calendar, on the usual course combining vineyard paths and explosive climbs. These various obstacles, eighteen in total, were all located in the last seventy kilometres of a race that was 211-km long. Yet, the first half of the race could also provide its share of action. “It’s always good to put a guy in front in Paris-Tours because you never know what can happen in the final, with the wind, punctures,” explained Frédéric Guesdon. “So Johan went for it and took the breakaway at the start. Unfortunately, there were only five of them ahead. Then, after Vendome, with the tail/crosswind, some echelons happened. The gap, which was four minutes, quickly decreased to 1’30. We were quite well positioned in the echelons, but everything was back together fifteen kilometres before the vineyard paths.” As the first sector approached, the intense fight for positioning in the peloton also reduced the breakaway’s lead to just one minute. A selection process also took place, due to some mechanical problems and splits, and Stefan Küng lost all hope of being able to compete at the front after an early puncture.
“I wanted to win or nothing,” Thibaud Gruel
Following several accelerations, the early breakaway was captured fifty kilometres from the finish line, but the Groupama-FDJ cycling team remained well represented in an increasingly small peloton. Johan Jacobs, Olivier Le Gac, and Cyril Barthe followed a few moves, but it was on a slight uphill road, 36 kilometers from the finish, that a duo formed by Thibaud Gruel and Paul Lapeira managed to go clear. “We had a solid team, so the goal was not to get caught behind,” Frédéric added. “We had to follow the moves and be in the mix from the first few paths to avoid being one step behind. That’s what we did.” “I was feeling good, I tried to go for it, Paul counterattacked me, and I tried to catch his wheel,” Thibaud said. “We went away together, we got along well, and we were both strong.” Valentin Madouas also tried to make the jump for a bit, but he was eventually caught by the pack, which was quite disorganized at the time. The leading duo created a twenty-second gap, resisted the first counterattacks on the following climbs and paths, then managed to increase their lead to thirty-five seconds with twenty kilometres to go. “Once the breakaway gets a small lead here, it’s often very hard to catch,” added Frédéric. “Both of them were strong, and the favourites really struggled to catch them.”
In the longest sector of the day, however, a group of five strong riders managed to break away from the peloton and came back at fifteen seconds. “Val was on the verge of joining the chasing group, but he missed a corner, and it went without him,” said Frédéric. “The only regret of the day is not having been able to follow this group of five, because that could have changed things in the final.” At the front, Thibaud Gruel and Paul Lapeira managed to hold off their chasers on the last two climbs, getting over the final difficulty, nine kilometers from the finish, together and with a ten-second lead. What followed was a breathless power struggle towards Tours. “At first, we worked together, we rode well, we were solid, and they didn’t come back,” added Thibaud. This meant that the ten-second gap was still valid with five and two kilometres to go! However, a few moments before the flamme rouge, the two men started to look at each other, and their gap was immediately gone. “I was dying to crack and pull, but I was told on the radio not to, then I said to myself: it’s only a game, it’s only a bike race, I won’t crack,” debriefed Thibaud. “He told me it was up to me to take responsibility because I was at home, and I wanted him to take the lead. In the end, he didn’t crack either and we were caught. I gambled and I don’t regret it. I wanted to win or nothing.”
“It’s promising for the years to come,” Frédéric Guesdon
Caught by a quartet in the final few hundreds of metres, Thibaud Gruel therefore found himself with more competitors for the final sprint, including Christophe Laporte and Matteo Trentin. “I still believed in it,” he said. “I tried to go early, I didn’t want to have any regrets, unfortunately it didn’t work out.” At the finish line, he placed fifth, a modest reward considering the performance he put in. “Fifth is a bit hard, but I had fun, and that’s the most important thing,” concluded Thibaud. “It was great, I really enjoyed it at home, and everyone was cheering me on the whole way.” “Young riders sometimes tend to be satisfied with being second, but we’re here to win races, so we had to take that risk,” concluded Frédéric. “Both lost, but that’s the game. We must remember Thibaud’s performance, as he was really up to it today. It’s promising for the years to come, both for Paris-Tours and for other Classics. We lacked a little something to finish on a high note, but we were there as a team, and it’s good to finish the season in this way.”
