Matîs Louvel and Clément Russo, 9th and 13th of the Grand Prix de Fourmies
As announced the Grand Prix de Fourmies was a bunch sprint. Matîs Louvel and Clément Russo are both in the top 13 of this French Cup race.
On the line
“A quiet day at the beginning, a nervous one at the end! During the preparation of the sprint we got a bit lost with the team. I found Donavan again with two and a half kilometres to go and he made a big effort to put me back in the train of the sprinters. After that, I bounced a little bit between each of them, but he helped me a lot and I will take the 9th place in this Grand Prix de Fourmies. I had worked on the sprint last year, and it is starting to pay off this season. I can show this year that I have made good progress in this area, and that is good”.
“As usual, the Grand Prix de Fourmies ended with a bunch sprint. It was a battle at the beginning of the race with a breakaway that took shape with four riders, then afterwards the sprinters’ formations controlled the whole day. We had a good day collectively, Benjamin and Markus did a great job, they kept putting us back in the peloton. The sprint finish here is a bit tricky, you have to “unplug your brain” as we say. We tried to do the sprint in order to score points, we don’t have any sprinter today who was the equal of those who were fighting for the first places, but we did the best by going to rub to get places. Amaury was also a precious help in the final. Matîs finished 9th, I was 13th. I did my job for my recovery after my crash, while also being careful”.
The debrief
“The predicted scenario happened with a massive sprint. Donavan replaced Matîs perfectly on the outskirts of the finish line. Clément was in front, but he lost speed with two hundred meters to go. Considering the sprinters involved in this event and without denying our ambitions, we decided to play in the middle. It is important to take UCI points, and this objective is fulfilled with Matîs and Clément. We will say mission accomplished, even if our motivation remains the victory. But here it was difficult to fight against the top sprinters, while we entered young riders in this race. So we did our job perfectly with the assets we had on this event”.