Arkéa Samsic are rising to World Tour level and they have now 19 riders signed into the 2023 season. 4 riders have renewed their contract with the French team, with the team still expected to attack the market in the coming weeks
“A land of cycling, Brittany is also a land of runners, moreover of high quality. Our membership, our identity, our roots have always made, and will always make, that our workforce will be largely made up of runners from our territory," team manager Emanuel Hubert said, justifying the re-signing of four of it's riders. Élie Gesbert,
Thibault Guernalec,
Alan Riou and
Laurent Pichon.
Whilst the latter two will have domestique roles, Guernalec has been growing as a time-trialist within the team and will hope to expand his ambitions. Most importantly, the re-signing of Gesbert allows the team to build on it's mountain foundations. The 27-year old is a stage winner at the Volta ao Algarve from 2021, and this year has been chasing wins at the Vuelta a Espana, aswell as other one-day races, and a fourth place in the overall classification of the Tour of Oman.
"Extending the contracts of Alan Riou, Thibault Guernalec who have been with us since their neo-pro years was obvious. Just like renewing that of Élie Gesbert, a temperamental rider who has not yet been able to exploit, express his full potential for the reasons we know, but who nevertheless has demonstrated through his mental strength that this long-awaited moment by him and by us, was now very close to happening," he explained.
Laurent Pichon, he is a captain of the road, but not only. He knows how to show the way to high performance while guiding the youngest, a valuable double quality within a group, to which is added his great experience of the UCI WorldTour, experience which will be invaluable to the whole group," Hubert continued.
With Nairo Quintana leaving the French team, it is expected that there will be budget to still make moves in the market into the upcoming season, whilst the likes of Hugo Hofstetter and Warren Barguil will keep their leading roles, with a specific focus in the classics.
