Sébastien Vigier regained the blue-white-red jersey and the gold medal, Saturday evening, for a very small gut but a gut nonetheless, in the final of the French Keirin Championship. “This title represents quite a bit, one could say, it's just a French Championship, he's already won several, but it puts an end to a period of scarcity, it's been a few years since I just won a race“, comments the Créteil rider Kronos. Indeed, his last victory dates back to the Ghent Grand Prix in April 2023, three months after his last title of French Champion, already in the keirin, in Roubaix. “It's a lot of good after a complicated year“, he adds. 2024, the Olympic year, was synonymous with a 4th place in team sprint in Paris, followed by premature eliminations in the speed and keirin tournaments.
So since the start of the school year, Sébastien Vigier has been preparing outside the Olympic pole. “The French team and the pole were split. I made my own little system. I continue to drive to Saint-Quentin, I live nearby. But I ride in the public slots, I'm in the middle of everyone, but the coaches at the national velodrome make it easier for me. They organize the sessions so that I can carry out my efforts. It's a different organization, the slots are not ideal but that's how it is“.
With this new organization, the 27-year-old runner has not yet thought about his precise program for 2025. “It will depend on my physical sensations and if I regain my senses“, he insists. Among the possibilities of activities, there is the Derbywheel, a series of keirin tournaments with betting, but the organizers have not yet received the agreement from the UCI. “It might interest me but I don't want to risk my career if it's not accepted by the UCI“, he tempers. In the short term, the former European Champion hopes to be selected for the Continental Championship in February. “If I have very good French Championships, I hope to be selected for the Europe. We'll see what happens. But it's all in its time. Today (Saturday) was a good day, we'll see tomorrow“. The main thing for him is to “rediscover the hunger to win. I still have the pleasure of running but I had lost this hunger in recent years and to taste it again with this title, it will feel good“.
