American Tours: Kévin Vauquelin at the start

It will be Sunday the 46th^e edition of the American-style cyclo-cross in Tours. The event created by Georges Gibeaux started in 1978 on Île-Aucard. It has been based at Grandmont Park since 2009. If we consider that this American event followed a traditional individual event, it is the 53^e edition of this PL Paul-Bert Tours organization which the public will attend on Sunday.

The pros, once numerous at the start, are almost no longer available. They are increasingly required to respect draconian preparation programs which no longer allow them any deviation, even two months before the start of the road season.

Kévin Vauquelin is an exception to the rule, he will be present in Grandmont, as he was in 2022. The winner of the second stage of the Tour de France 2024, in Bologna, double Olympic selection (time trial and road), is not not strictly speaking a cyclo-cross specialist. But on the Grandmont circuit designed to benefit the road racers, with no chicanes, no jumping boards, but with difficult climbs, he must be able to do well. He has the watts to compensate for his technical weaknesses.

Jonathan Hivert also at the start

Kévin Vauquelin will team up with Victor Lebon, a Blésois licensed in La Roche-sur-Yon, also a driver, a boy who regularly attends our departmental races.

Like last year, Jonathan Hivert, the Touraine retired from the pro peloton, will once again put on bib shorts to participate in this American race that he likes. He will be associated with his comrade from US Saint-Pierre, Stanislas Cornet. This team, despite the lack of competition which will handicap Hivert, can still play for the podium.

Hardouin and Millon as favorites

A podium whose highest step could well be occupied by Louis Hardouin and Simon Millon, the strong men of this American race. Hardouin, from Guidon Chaletois, won at Grandmont last year, associated with Jason Ansard, the regional champion. Millon, who is back at Guidon Chaletois after a year of experience in the Breton team Morbihan Adris, placed third in the Nazelles cyclo-cross two weeks ago.

He is progressing in technique. But like Hardouin, he is above all a road racer to be classified among the best French amateurs. The two runners from Châlette are capable of making the difference when it comes to gearing up on this physical course.

We will also welcome the return to competition of Nicolas Coste. He won the event twice with a pro as a teammate, Benoît Jarrier in 2015 and Thomas Bonnet in 2017. Coste will be associated with his teammate from US Saint-Pierre, Benjamin Masset.

For the moment, the organizers are counting on the presence of twenty-seven teams at the start.

Sunday November 24, avenue de Montjoyeux in Tours. Prologue, U17, U19, access, ladies at 1:30 p.m.; American at 2:45 p.m., 1 hour 20 minutes into the race.