Alexy Faure-Prost hasn’t been at the party for two months. The Intermarché-Wanty rider had high expectations for April and his results were well below his expectations. “I had on my program the Tour du Pays Basque, Liège Espoirs, the Amstel, the Flèche Wallonne (where he has not been, Editor’s note) and the Tour de Romandie. It was an important month, we made sure that I arrived in good shape but March and April were complicated”he confides to DirectVelo. The French Espoirs Champion had been feeling really tired for weeks. “I told myself that I was in a bad period, that I was in races that didn’t suit me in March. It was after the Tour of the Basque Country that I understood that something was wrong”.
A blood test revealed testosterone levels that were far too low.. “I was almost reassured when I saw that there was something about the blood test. We also saw that I also had some other concerns. I started seeing a specialist to see what we could do to make it better. I prefer to say it, I don’t want to run under AUT (authorization for therapeutic purposes, Editor’s note) and I’m not going to run under AUT”.
A CUT AFTER THE TOUR OF ROMANDY
The Aindinois who has just celebrated his 20th birthday will wait until the end of the Tour de Romandie, where he is competing this week, to finally take a breather. Although he has continued to run in recent weeks, he has been taking it easy in training. “Since I have had the results of the analyses, I have obviously relaxed a little. I trained for pleasure, without really having a training plan, because in these cases it is also mentally hard. I had expectations so it wasn’t easy at that level. This is not the start to the season we were hoping for”.
Highly anticipated after a very good year in Espoir 1st year, which allowed him to move directly from Conti to the Belgian WorldTeam, Alexy Faure-Prost tried despite everything to remain positive and he quickly got into the lead in the second part of the season. “I try to stay focused on that”. At the Tour de Romandie, he wishes “[se] regain confidence on the bike and in the race”. His break after the Tour de Romandie will allow him “to do a reset” before returning to the rest of the season. “We will see how my health will be but I will normally resume with the team with an altitude course in Andorra, probably before the Peace Race, the Giro Espoirs and the French Championship”. The Tour de l’Avenir always remains in the back of his mind. “I hope now that things will get better and get back to normal quickly.”
