It is not the toughest race of the year but the Grand Prix de la Sologne des Etangs requires a lot of vigilance to avoid the pitfalls that its course contains.
Saturday June 29th will be the support for the third round of the Coupe de France N2 and the riders will have to…
It’s not the hardest race of the year but the Sologne des Etangs Grand Prix requires a lot of vigilance to avoid the pitfalls that its route contains.
Saturday June 29 will be the support for the third round of the Coupe de France N2 and the riders will have to be particularly wary of a “fairly winding” final circuit, describes CC Périgueux sports director Yohan Poirier. In addition, you will have to take it three more times than planned since the route has been modified due to a David Guetta concert at the Château de Chambord which disrupts traffic throughout the area.
Above all, the course has a 700-metre elevation gain. Needless to say, it’s flat and rolling, so Poirier changed his approach and fielded a more experienced team than usual. “You have to know how to rub so I left out Calum O’Connor and Armand Gouery, who are in good shape but less comfortable on this type of course. I favoured road sprinters.”
Pasquet in confidence
And in particular another man in form, Aurélien Pasquet, who “had two very good months, including two top 15s in Elite and an 8th place on a stage of the Tour of Mauritius with Continental Pros. He is confident,” describes the sports director. With Mathieu Morichon and Corentin Faure, they will be there to ensure the sprint.
Lucas Aumeunier, Clément Laporte and Clément Saint-Martin will have the mission of taking the right breakaway. You will have to be present in front and well placed before the final packaging to absolutely score points. After two rounds (out of five), the CCPD is 15th in the Coupe de France and 14th in the National Challenge, on the edge of the relegation zone.
“We’ve repositioned ourselves well but we need points. Ideally, we’d need a boy in the top 10, one in the top 20 and one in the top 30,” hopes Yohan Poirier. The other point that could change the situation is the rain that threatens the race. If it falls, it will require even greater vigilance. And the strongest or the smartest will then come out on top.
Practical
The start will be given at 12:05 p.m. (actual at 12:15 p.m.) from Vilmorant Castle to Neung-sur-Beuvron (Loir-et-Cher) for 157.5 km. There will be around 110 km of online racing before a final circuit to be covered nine times. The finish will be judged at the same place as the start, certainly a little after 4 p.m.
