Yvon Caer: " Hugo dies in the money-time ".
Kevin Ledanois finished 11th in Geelong, Élie Gesbert finished in the same small group that was vying for the win at the Cadel Evans Ocean Road.
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On the line
“We did three weeks in Australia, with an seven day race in January and quite a lot of kilometres done. It’s not bad to get back into the swing of things. Everyone has adapted to this country-continent and I feel that I have got some feeling for the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Race. I finished 11th in this race, but there is a little lack because I think we had the means to do better. Hugo already had a crash on the last lap, which meant that he lost any chance of shining, even though he was doing very well. As for me, for the sprint, with more confidence I can get a fifth or sixth place by launching from further away with the wind. I am slowly finding my automatisms, that is what I want to remember. I’m on the right track, the season is well underway. I also appreciated the role of road captain that I was given with Mathis Le Berre and Ewen Costiou, I enjoyed giving them advice, thank you to Yvon and the team for this trust in me”.
The debrief’
“The Cadel Evans Ocean Road Race was held according to a scenario that we had imagined perfectly with a group of 20 to 25 riders fighting for victory. Unfortunately for us, Hugo died at the worst moment of the race. In the money time of this race, we changed his bike, but it was over with all the breaks that had occurred. Without that, he could have achieved a very good result, but you don’t redo the race. I would like to underline the very good attitude of the whole team. Elie was enterprising, he cleverly slipped into our good moves. But the final wasn’t selective enough for us to see an explanation between the climbers. Lukasz, Alessandro, Mathis and Ewen were efficient. Kévin was given carte blanche to do the sprint, he finished 11th. With his newfound automatisms and even more confidence, he can hope for results in the short term. I would also like to pay tribute to the involvement of all the staff in these competitions in Australia, at an unusual time of the year for us.