French coach Thomas Voeckler doesn't panic after lesser Euros: "There can't be a medal or a podium every time"

Country of the defending European champion Christophe Laporte - France, came into this year's edition in Belgian Limburg in a role of an underdog.

With outsider sprinter Arnaud Démare, Laporte tried to create chances for himself and his teammates, causing chaos by jumping along with the move of world champion Mathieu van der Poel in the middle section of the race, but to no avail. Eventually the race went as the strong teams of Belgium and mainly Italy envisioned - coming into a bunch spint after more than four and half an hour of racing. National coach Thomas Voeckler is regardless proud of the way his team rode, even if they have to make do without medals after the successful Olympic Games where Valentin Madouas took silver while Laporte grabbed bronze medal.

Voeckler spoke about the race on the L'Equipe channel, satisfied with the French team's day: "The predominant feeling is pride in the work accomplished by the riders. Honestly, everyone played the role I had assigned. In the sprint, they were boxed in, if Belgium didn't come and cut in... It's 9-10 (Laporte 9th and Démare 11th, ed.) or something like that, but you have to accept the result, when the state of mind is impeccable. They all did their job, when things moved, we were there, Christophe was strong. I think that when he was in front, he was the strongest of the 6, Pedersen may have made more effort."

"We have to accept that there won't be a medal or a podium every time, but in terms of the state of mind and how the day went, it was good. We wanted to make the race uncontrollable, to make the other teams want to go for it too. The result is frustrating, Arnaud and Christophe are very frustrated but I'm very proud of them and I can only congratulate them," added the coach of the French team.