Thomas Siniecki, Media365: published on Tuesday October 15, 2024 at 6:24 p.m.
Sprinter Emilien Jeannière (TotalEnergies), third in the recent Tour of Istanbul, won the first stage race of his career.
At the heart of this very end of the season, where some Italian classics come to definitively close the year 2024 this week after the Tour of Lombardy and the new demonstration of Tadej Pogacar, a French rider took advantage of another of the final events of the calendar to shine and build confidence before 2025: Emilien Jeannière won the Tour of Kyushu, in Japan (this is the southernmost island, among the four major ones that make up the country).
At the French level, only Cosnefroy is ahead of him
Victorious in the first two stages on Saturday and Sunday, the TotalEnergies sprinter also took second place on Monday for the third and final day, which allowed him to maintain a fourteen-second lead over Lukas Nerurkar (EF Education – EasyPost) and 23 seconds on Ivan Smirnov (Astana – Qazaqstan). Two other French people from TotalEnergies also appear in the final top 10: Jordan Jegat fifth (at 31″) and Thomas Bonnet eighth (at 34″). This is not a first for Jeannière, quite the contrary since he is even the most victorious element of the season within the TotalEnergies squad, after having won a stage of the Boucles de la Mayenne in May, another of the Tour of Istanbul in September and therefore these two stages in Kyushu in addition to the general. In the three races, he also wore the green jersey.
At the French level, only Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R) is ahead of him with seven successes and he rubs shoulders with Paul Magnier (Soudal – Quick Step), Lenny Martinez (Groupama – FDJ) as well as the French champion Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R). At the end of September, he had already won the general classification of the Belgian Cup, a first for a Frenchman – ahead of Laurenz Rex (Intermarché Wanty) and Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility). Enough to offer great ambitions for next year for the former member of the Vendée U team, who still has two years of contract with TotalEnergies.
