“The worst season”

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Quite a symbol. While he usually never counts his hours, his energy and his money to follow his runners to the four corners of France, Jean-Marie Pezet did not make the trip Sunday September 22, 2024 in order to attend the final of the French Cup N1.

“What’s the point? We had nothing left to play for,” justifies the president of Team Bricquebec Cotentin (Manche), who has already given up on this 2024 season, “the worst” in his eyes in the history of the Team.

JMP has nothing to regret: in Burgundy, at the very place where he had popped the champagne a year earlier to celebrate victory in the N2 French Cup, his riders were once again transparent, with their best rider (Antoine Mias) ranking 86th.^e 7’38” behind the winner.

In the final general classification, the promoted Bricquebétais ranks a disappointing 17th^e place among 21 teams, almost 100 points from the Top 10, the objective trumpeted at the start of the year.

17th out of 21 teams in the final ranking

“On paper, we could have had this ambition. With the team we had at the start, it’s not logical to finish 17th^e “, complains Jean-Marie Pezet. If he mentions “a bit of bad luck” with injuriesof the falls or some diseases who have decimated the ranks, the leader does not hide behind this excuse and more generally denounces “a lack of professionalism and desire” of its executives.

He points the finger, without naming him, at Corentin Ermenault, the highest earner in the squad, who has been the focus of his exasperation for several months and towards whom he may have been wrong to give carte blanche.

Some riders have been disrespectful to the club and have tarnished its image by not keeping their commitments. We started with 18 players at the start of the season and I had trouble finding 6 for the Coupe de France final. I had to field a sick rider to make up the number. Is this normal?

The specter of relegation to N2 in 2026

If the TBC did not have to fear a possible relegation to N2 at the end of this season, the club being labeled N1 for two years, it will have to be much more convincing to maintain its status in 2026.

According to the new scale published on Tuesday September 24 by the FFC for the application of promotions and relegations, the Cotentin training is currently 20^e(out of 21) and is well below the only one in terms of accessibility to the N1.

“We will have no choice but to have a great season to stay up. In any case, we could hardly do worse!”, prefers to smile Jean-Marie Pezet who intends to start from a “blank sheet” with only four riders kept and ten new faces.

After having already announced nine recruits, including four English and one Australian, the Bricquebétais staff should soon reveal a final name.

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