10 July 2021

Élie Gesbert: "We keep the same objectives"

Élie Gesbert 7th in Quillan showed that the Arkea-Samsic team, even if it is now composed of only four riders, has not lost any of its initial ambitions.

 

Photo GettyImages

On the line…

“It was a stage where many riders wanted to be in front. I had rarely seen that in the Tour. During one hundred kilometres, there were many breakaway attempts! I launched a breakaway at the first difficulties with four French riders and we managed to make the junction. We probably lost some of our energy, but I have no regrets, Mollema was superior to us. He attacked when he had to at the bottom of the descent and he held on, well done to him. We will continue to give it our best shot to win this stage despite the fact that we have not been spared since the start of the Tour de France in Brest”.

“It was a stage that went fast again, with a very high average speed during the first hours of the race. There are only four of us left because Warren was injured and didn’t start this morning, Nacer also fell yesterday. The Pyrenees are coming up and there are still a lot of points to give out in the next few days for the mountain classification”.

Yvon Caër, Sport-director

The Debrief

“We will fight until the end of this Tour de France. Our objectives remain the same: try to win a stage, bring the polka dot jersey back to Paris. Elijah showed us the way to go. We had checked off this stage whether it was with him or with Warren. Elijah rode very well but Mollema was above the rest. We want to be like that every day until the Champs-Elysees. There are also many points in the high mountains to conquer. Nothing is lost. I would also like to salute the courage of Nacer, who was hit by a crash yesterday, but he pulled out all the stops to do and finish this stage”.

Riders