"I always believed I could do it": Jordan Jegat ends his victory-fasting on a season debut

As hard to believe as it sounds, Jordan Jegat - a top-10 finisher from last year's Tour de France - has never won a professional race in his career. Despite having come close to a victory multiple times, the 26-year-old's wait lasted until today.

Quite an unlikely victory. Jegat was in better racing shape before - after all he was yet to race in 2026 before Friday. The Classic Grand Besancon Doubs (1.1) was Jegat's delayed start to this season, in which he aims for no less than a Tour de France stage victory.

"It's crazy, I knew I was capable of doing it but I had never won as a pro because every time I made tactical errors, especially in this race. I think this is my fifth participation. I finished 4th last year, 10th two years ago," Jegat recounts in a post-race interview.

"Since I got back on the bike after my injury, I've been thinking about this race and playing out all sorts of scenarios in my head! Today, it was the best possible scenario, so I'm super happy."

Regardless of his lengthy absence, Jegat was still counted among pre-race favourites alongside Decathlon CMA CGM Team youngsters Matthew Riccitello and Léo Bisiaux, the two supported by Nicolas Prodhomme. The strongest French team at the moment was confident about its winning chances, but missed the opportunity to use numbers advantage to put pressure on Jegat who holds a much better kick to the line than Decathlon's leaders.

However the presence of multiple Decathlon jerseys, pushing a hard pace from the foot of final summit, made Jegat itch to attack as soon as possible. Yet, he learnt from his mistakes of the past and saved his matches as the front group continued to whittle down. "It wasn't easy. From the bottom of the climb, I felt great and wanted to attack. But I thought back to the mistakes of previous years and tried to stay calm for as long as possible," he explains.

"I had Lylian Lebreton (DS) in my earpiece telling me to calm down, despite my temperament. I really tried to stay with the others, then accelerated at the end to avoid being overtaken. I knew I had to launch my sprint in the corner, in the last 200 meters, and it worked."

Besides a prestigious victory for a team searching for a new title sponsor from 2027, Jegat passes a large personal milestone in his career. Today's victory was an accumulation of continuous work and excellent training ethic, all of which paid off in Besancon.

"I always believed I could do it, but you never know what level the others are at. In any case, I knew I felt very good and that they would have a hard time dropping me. I simply tried to follow their attacks, let them do their thing, and it worked well."

Jegat can immediately try for double at the Tour du Jura. The follow-up one-day race in Jura mountain range offers even more challenging parcours - but without endless mountain passes which would favor the lightweight runner-up from today - Matthew Riccitello - who seems to be Jegat's main challenger this Saturday.