"It was now or never" - Kévin Geniets takes career-changing victory at La Marseillaise

Groupama - FDJ headed into the Grand Prix La Marseillaise with high ambitions and took an important win. The French team created the winning gap, and Kévin Geniets won for the first time outside of national championships.

“I was keen to finally win a race in my sixth season as a professional. I put a lot of pressure on myself before the start. We played it out perfectly as a team, everyone did well," the Luxembourger said in a post-race interview. "I tried to stay calm all day and control everything. In the past I mainly worked as a domestique, but now I was allowed to go for my own chance. So I'm extremely happy that it worked out straight away."

Geniets and Alex Baudin attacked from the peloton on the Route des Crêtes, the main climb of the day. With the help of Rémy Rochas the duo created an important gap, which they then carried all the way to the finish. The 27-year old was clearly the strongest in the two-up sprint, and even though he led out an early acceleration, he had more than enough space at the end to celebrate his first victory outside of his home country.

“In the last kilometers I told myself it was now or never. My strength is that I can go through that acidification, so I knew I had to make it a very long sprint," he tells. "Winning means a lot to me and this will always be an important day in my career.” Geniets will have a packed schedule in France over the coming weeks, and will aim for victories in races such as the Etoile de Bessèges and Tour des Alpes Maritimes.