27 August 2021

Hugo Hofstetter: "Express myself in the races of the North”

Hugo Hofstetter wants to perform more and more in one-day races, especially in Belgium. He will reinforce the classics and sprint pole within our team.

 

 

Hugo Hofstetter

 

“What I liked about Emmanuel Hubert’s proposal is that he immediately put forward the profile of the rider that I am: sprinter and one-day race rider in the North of France and in Belgium. I quickly understood, through his speech, that he wanted to recruit me. His words and his motivation to sign me up won me over. I think that when you are a rider, it is important to have a General Manager who believes in your abilities, who trusts you, and above all who wants to accompany you towards victory.

For me, these are important factors for a successful professional collaboration, and they determined my choice in favour of Arkéa-Samsic. I also know this team well. I have seen how it has evolved over the last few years, and I also appreciate the way in which the team management has run the race. Another determining factor for me was the equipment, a sine qua non condition for success at the top level. To have premium, state-of-the-art equipment, as is the case at Arkéa-Samsic, is essential in professional cycling today. My focus at Arkéa-Samsic will be the Belgian semi-classics such as the Samyn. I obviously dream of performing on the Flemish monuments. I’m working towards that, but I think that you have to start by doing the semi-classics, and then you can aim higher. The great classics require a certain amount of learning. The other asset I have is the sprint. I can express myself on a second front other than that of Nacer. The race programme of the Arkéa-Samsic team allows for this. I’ve also worked with Nacer in the past, we know each other well, and we have a good rapport, so there’s no problem with living together.

 

 

Hugo Hofstetter in brief

 

Born on 13 February 1994 in Altkirch

2018, Professional French Cup

2018, 1st in the Europe Tour ranking

2018, 1st stage of the Tour de l’Ain

2018, 2nd in the Grand Prix of Denain, Cholet-Pays-de-la-Loire

2018, 3rd in Nokere-Koerse

2018, 3rd of the Roue Tourangelle

2019, 2nd of the Grand Prix Jef Scherens

2019, 3rd in Trofeo Palma

2019, 5th in Eschborn-Frankfurt

2020, 1st of the Samyn

2015, 1st of the French Espoirs Championships

2015, 3rd of Paris-Roubaix Espoirs

Emmanuel Hubert, General Manager

“Hugo Hofstetter is a young sprinter who already has an impressive track record. You don’t win the UCI Europe Tour ranking by chance. Winning such a trophy shows qualities, but also a real mental strength because you have to resist the pressure of the chasers. You also have to be very consistent throughout the season to win the UCI Europe Tour. But the main thing that determined me to recruit Hugo was his versatility: his ability to express himself in the sprint, but also his ability to negotiate the one-day races in Belgium and in the North of France. His victory in 2020 on the roads of Samyn is the proof. He went for it like a warrior, just like this year with his nice second place in the Tour de Wallonie or this other podium recently on the roads of the Tour de Pologne. Hugo still has a lot of room for improvement both in the sprint and in the one-day races. He is a logical addition to our sprint and classics divisions, a category of races in which I would like the Arkéa-Samsic team to invest more and more”.