Tour du Poitou-Charentes (Stage 4), K.Vauquelin 2nd
Kévin Vauquelin took 2nd place in this individual time trial. He is also 2nd in the overall classification and best young rider this evening.
Connor Swift finished 5th in the stage and is now 4th in the overall classification.
“It was a good time trial and I liked the layout. It was hilly with a lot of restarts and changes of pace. The same goes for the distance between 20 and 30 km, which suits me. 2nd place is a satisfaction. I finished the European championships in 7th place, conceding 1’10 to Stefan Kung and today on a stage race I am 17 seconds behind him. I feel that I am progressing, I have done a lot of time trials this year, it has been a while since I have done them and I am enjoying them again. I am back to my real level and it is nice to have the adrenalin back, the time management. I am happy with what I did tonight.”
“This morning it was a massive sprint, but we tried to attack beforehand, especially with Louis, but the final wasn’t as hard as that to counteract the scenario. This afternoon it was the time trial, we didn’t win but it’s a satisfaction to see Kévin and Connor in these places. Kévin Vauquelin finished 2nd in this stage, 17 seconds (only) behind a reference in the discipline. They are tonight 2nd and 4th of the general classification, we are satisfied. We can say that these two riders that we had designated (Kévin and Connor) assumed their roles and they were up to the task. There is still one stage left tomorrow and we will have to be very concentrated.”