The 26-year-old runner left alone 20 kilometers from the finish on Sunday.
While everyone was waiting for Julian Alaphilippe, it was Valentin Madouas who shone on the roads of the North. The Groupama-FDJ rider won the road race of the French championships, Sunday June 25, at the end of an explosive event. Starting in the lead with his teammate David Gaudu 27 kilometers from the line, he was the strongest and even withstood a mechanical problem on the last lap to win his first national championship title. Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) and Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo) complete the podium.
Madouas had it all right. Quickly installed in the lead, the native of Brest almost always sailed in the first positions over the 224 kilometers of the race. At 27 kilometers from the finish, as the breakaway was exploding, he followed his teammate David Gaudu to take the lead, before finding himself alone at the front, seven kilometers later. Despite a final fright at the start of the last lap, 12 kilometers from the line, when his bike derailed on the cobbles, he held on to claim victory. “I’ve been waiting for years to be French champion in the pros. For two years I’ve only thought about this championship, I told my whole family that I wanted to win here”he was moved just after the finish.
The success of Groupama-FDJ
The success of the Breton is also that of his team, Groupama-FDJ. The French formation, which had many riders on the starting line, has long printed a hellish tempo at the head of the peloton, during the 15 laps of the circuit between Hazebrouck and Cassel. She even believed, for a few kilometers, to hold a crazy hat-trick, when Madouas and Gaudu escaped in the lead, and were joined by Rudy Molard. She will console herself with a nice double and second place from Rudy Molard, who hung on to come back in the final.
Expected at the turn, Julian Alaphilippe never seemed to have the legs to weigh on the race. Left behind for the first time 106 kilometers from the finish, he was definitively dropped a little later, in one of the many climbs of the Porte d’Aire, in pain. He ended up throwing in the towel, 65 kilometers from the goal. In addition to the Soudal Quick-Step runner, running, “dantesque” in the words of the winner, also saw the retirement of Axel Zingle, third in 2020, or Rémi Cavagna. At 18 kilometers from the finish line, only 23 riders were still in contention on the road.