Prueba Villafranca, Elie Gesbert back to racing
Élie Gesbert, who had a serious crash on the roads of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, will resume racing on the Iberian roads.
Pre-race
“I took part in the training camp organized by the Arkéa-Samsic team in Isola 2000. I feel good, but of course it is always difficult to really evaluate your physical condition as long as you haven’t started racing yet. The race is the real indicator of the level of fitness. I have been able to train normally and everything is going in the right direction. Returning after an injury is like closing a chapter and opening a new one. You put an end to a situation and you start again in a process of life as a professional cyclist that you know. I say this because I have experienced this type of situation a few times already. And now I’m back on a new cycle, which is that of competition.
The briefing
“Prueba Villafranca will mark the return of Élie Gesbert to racing. Finding him among us means that he will resume his life as a runner. We know that Élie is an athlete who quickly regains a good level of form, and we hope that the same will be true for him at the end of the season. We have a homogeneous group of good climbers and a rouleur-grimpeur for this Iberian competition, the goal for this resumption will be to put the group back in the same dynamic as the one that animated the Arkéa-Samsic team before the July break for some of them because of the Tour de France.