With new faces on the team, Cofidis are starting their year off right as they collect two consecutive wins in Etoile de Bessèges.
Benjamin Thomas won the third stage of the French stage-race with a brilliant solo move within the final 3 kilometers after making the race-winning move over the final climb. Now in the lead of the race, Thomas is certainly a favourite aswell to fight for the first place of the overall classification, but for the time being the French team are enjoying their success.
"When the opportunity was present at the top of the hill, he knew how to grab it and go for this great solo victory. We're on a positive spiral and we'll do everything to keep seizing it!" Said Alain Deloeuil, DS of the French team.
After Bryan Coquard broke an 18-month old period with no wins yesterday, the French time-trial national champion broke his 4 year and 7-month old dry spell in non-time trial races.
To L'Équipe, Thomas affirmed: "In Etoile de Bessèges I came to raise my arms in the air, the GC comes after. Tomorrow we'll have to resist, I'll be the man to beat."
Benjamin Thomas is leading the race 7 seconds ahead of Alberto Bettiol and 15 ahead of TotalEnergie's Mathieu Burgaudeau. Having survived the crosswind chaos and seizing the bad luck of some of his rivals, Thomas sees himself in a position he likely wasn't expecting to be in.
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024
- I'm loving the level of competition and the compositions of teams in 2025. Sure Pogi had an historic 2024. Slate is clean in 2025. And lots of great athletes--MvdP, Vingo, Primoz, Remco, Marc Hircshi, Pidcock, Carlos Rodriquez--and strong teams want to win. I think Pogi will have another great season in 2025. But I think we will talk about others having great seasons too. Who? I don't know. I'll watch the classics and tours and will root for spirited competition.pidginbil24-12-2024
- Sorry but 50€ a day for an international hotel was already a joke 6 years ago. Combined with the fact a lot of them are international chains, this is just capitalism as the West has taught. I think the business term used now is « dynamic pricing « and it happens everywhere. Maybe some will now reflect on how 3rd world delegations are discriminated by prices when they have always had to travel to meetings, hence distorting results and silverware. We will also still have to see how things work out visa-wise, how many participants will be refused as in Glasgow and on what basis? As regards Pog, the coach had better put in place a strategy to avoid his boycotting for personal political reasons, that’s at least as big a problem as logistics.Mistermaumau24-12-2024