28 May 2023

Giro d'Italia - Yvon Caër: "A first participation full of lessons".

Team Arkéa-Samsic completed the first Giro in its history in Rome, with Warren Barguil finishing 17th in the final general classification.

 

Photo Arkéa-Samsic/ Aubin Lipke

Yvon Caër, Sport-director

The results of the 2023 Giro

“This first participation in the Giro d’Italia, which was a difficult edition due to the disastrous weather conditions encountered during the first two weeks, was full of lessons for the Arkéa-Samsic team, which was discovering this three-week event, the last Grand Tour that was missing from our history. Like any three-week event, this Giro had its share of successes, but also difficulties. Our balance sheet is balanced, even if we didn’t manage to win the stage we were aiming for. We finished on the podium twice (2nd and 3rd places for David Dekker and Warren Barguil), with another 4th place for Warren, proof that we weren’t far from achieving our objective.

Warren’s crash on the completely apocalyptic tenth stage was very debilitating for him, first and foremost, but also for the team. Our leader was able to grit his teeth and push on. He never gave up. I think that if he hadn’t done that, he would have been in with a chance of a stage win in the 2nd or 3rd week, but he could also have finished better than 17th overall. Other teams were weakened like us, and this Giro d’Italia was very tough. My thoughts are also with the three riders who had to leave the race, Clément Russo, David Dekker and Alessandro Verre. I also think that Alan Riou and Thibault Guernalec will benefit in the coming weeks from their first Grand Tour. This step forward will enable them to move on quickly to the next level.