Barguil wins French national title

Warren Barguil delivered his first victory for Arkéa-Samsic and his first since he won stage 18 atop the Col d'Izoard in the polka dot jersey at the 2017 Tour de France. He took a seven-man sprint ahead of Julien Simon and Damien Touzé, both from Cofidis, after late attacks from Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).

"This brings a lot of emotions after I almost quit cycling," Barguil reacted. "I’ve gone through hard times, I’ve been affected by criticisms and I’m thankful to the people who supported me throughout these difficult days, not to the people who only cheered on me when I was at my best."

Barguil was part of the group of 37 riders who rode away in the third of the 15 laps around La Haye-Fouassière in the Muscadet wine producing area near Nantes. WorldTour teams Groupama-FDJ and AG2R La Mondiale had six riders each, just like Arkéa-Samsic. The biggest names up the road were Madouas, David Gaudu and newly crowned French time trial champion Benjamin Thomas (both Groupama-FDJ), whereas AG2R La Mondiale had Alexis Gougeard and Pierre Latour. Pierre Rolland (Vital Concept-B&B Hôtels) was also in the mix.

Their advantage was 3:30 with 150km to go. Total Direct Energie was obviously not satisfied with the composition of the breakaway, having Perrig Quémeneur, Angelo Tulik, Paul Ourselin and Mathieu Burgaudeau in the front group but not Anthony Turgis, who was last year’s runner up. With 100km remaining, Groupama-FDJ relayed Total and suddenly brought the gap down to 1:55..

Arkéa-Samsic also chased at some stages but an attack by Gaudu with 80km to go made the breakaway alive again. The lead group was reduced to 23 riders and the gap went up again: 3:35 with 65km left to race.

"I always believed that we could stay away until the end if we kept three to four minutes lead before the last hour," Barguil said. "All my team-mates at the front were committed to help me win. Our road captain Florian Vachon made me calm two or three times when I rode too generously and I was pissed off with some riders who didn’t cooperate."

With 40km to go, four top riders attacked from the peloton: Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Anthony Turgis (Total Direct Energie), Elie Gesbert (Arkéa-Samsic) and Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale). After they were reined in due to a lack of cooperation, Pinot went again. Inside 20km to go, he was close to bridging the gap along with Rolland, who had been dropped from the front group, but it didn’t happen.

His teammate Madouas, who finished 13th overall in the Giro d’Italia, went by himself from the break with 7km to go. He stayed alone in the lead for 4km. Barguil and Martin were next to attack. "Martin made us lose the title," Simon deplored. "I raised my hand up in the air to ask Damien [Touzé] to ride behind him and we launched our sprint too early."

Barguil said that he "knew that a championship isn’t necessarily won by the fastest rider in the finale”, and duly claimed the spoils. He already had a French championship under his belt as he won solo in the junior ranks 10 years ago in Vendôme. In 2009, it was also the only other victory in the French Elite championship for Arkéa-Samsic that was then named Bretagne-Schuller and ranked a continental team, as Dimitri Champion outclassed the FDJ block. In 23 attempts since their inception in 1997, Cofidis are yet to bring the blue-white-red jersey home.

Full results