Clément Champoussin discovers the Tour de la Provence
The Tour de la Provence, which returns to the French professional racing calendar, will feature a less hilly route than in the past.
Photo GettyImages
Pre-race
“I enjoy racing at the start of the season, in my region, on roads I know”.
“I’ve never raced the Tour de la Provence, and I’m very happy to discover this event, which is back on the professional racing calendar. I live not very far from the stages where the race will take place. So I know the roads because I used to race on them when I was younger. I enjoy racing at the start of the season on the roads of my region, and I’m really happy to be able to discover the Tour de la Provence this year ».
The briefing
“Thank you to the organisers for getting the Tour de la Provence back on track”.
“I’d like to pay tribute to the organisers for putting their race back on the professional calendar after a season’s absence. The Tour de la Provence is an important event for the teams as they balance out the start of their season. Clearly, as in the past, we would have preferred to have a hard stage that would have made the difference, but as we often say, “it’s up to the riders to make the race”, and to make it difficult with the route that the organisers offer them. The Tour de la Provence is a very fine event, and it’s up to us to make sure that this competition, which isn’t ‘difficult’ on paper this year, becomes ‘difficult’ on the day ».