This Sunday the curtain goes up on the French racing calendar in traditional style at the GP Cycliste la Marseillaise, and while 2020 winner Benoît Cosnefroy may be taking part, he's not overly certain whether he'll hit the ground running like other years.
It's true that in 2020, the former Under-23 world champion claimed victories not only in Marseilles but also in the first French stage race, the Etoile de Bessèges, which follows on later this week.
However, when talking to Cyclingnews earlier this January at AG2R Citröen's training camp in Spain, Cosnefroy was weighing up the pros and cons of having an easier start to the year than he usually likes.
"Normally I get off to a very good start each season, I seem able to build my form pretty quickly so that helps and of course getting that early win is always good for the motivation," the 26-year-old said.
"But I've changed my program a bit for this season, and maybe that first win will be delayed. I'm due to race in events like the Ruta del Sol in Spain this February and the Italian March races" – where Cosnefroy will make his debut in Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milano-San Remo – "and they are very different to my usual events."
"So it's a bit of a risk to go down this road, but I want to see what I can do in other objectives to my usual ones. And I'm hoping I will have better form in March and April, so maybe this will help me get better condition."
For a sizeable chunk of the first half of the 2021 season, Cosnefroy was plagued by an old right knee injury – "during that period I only had one knee," he recently told French newspaper L'Equipe. Fortunately he says that "now the knee is fine."
"I'm starting out this season with a more solid base of training than last year, too. So all in all, it's good news."
As Cyclingnews observed in an interview with Cosnefroy last winter, one of the most striking images of Cosnefroy of 2021 came after the World Championships when Julian Alaphilippe's French team-mate was photographed "beer in hand, cap on backwards, and rainbow jersey in mouth…leading the way ensuring the title was celebrated appropriately."
But interestingly, another key image from Cosnefroy's year came when he and Alaphilippe were on opposing sides, and he inflicted a rare defeat on the QuickStep racer at the Bretagne Classic, despite Alaphilippe having teammate Mikel Honoré to back him up.
However, he insists that he has not changed as a result of getting the first WorldTour race of his career and ahead of 'Alaf' to boot. Certainly his appetite for further victories is no way sated.
"It hasn't affected me, either physically or psychologically, that much. I wanted that victory in the World Tour, and now I've got it, that's done. It's in my palmarès. But the need to win is stil there. I still want to go on winning, same as before," Cosnefroy says.
Cosnefroy has forged a well-deserved reputation for having a go even when beset by challenges, telling Cyclingnews last winter he put down his win in the one-day Tour du Finistère last spring, while still suffering badly from his knee injury, to "desire" and "good decisions" while being "far off top form."
So, while his biggest goals of the first half of the season are undoubtably the Ardennes Classics, it would not be surprising to see him in the thick of the action from the word go this February or indeed in Italy in Mach.
However, when it does come to the Belgian hilly one-day races though in April, Cosnefroy will likely be working to a different team plan to when he took second at La Flèche Wallonne back in 2020 behind Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates).
Since then AG2R Citroën have also signed former Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner Bob Jungels, and after a rough 2021 for both of them in the Ardennes Classics, this time round the French squad should have at least two major cards to play on the Mur de Huy and Côte de la Redoute.
"We're both going for them and we'll talk about it further down the line about how we play it," Cosnefroy says.
"I think we've both got different strengths and we can benefit from that. I'm a punchier kind of racer, and he's better on the long, steady climbs. The Liège finish will be very good for him if he can get away."
Jungels was the last ever winner at Liège former grinding uphill finish at Ans of course, rather than the 'new' finish in the city centre which then came into place in 2019. And as someone with a notable turn of speed on the summits, Cosnefroy himself says that he would have preferred the harder finish to stay in place.
"It is worse, it's very hard to get away alone and on the flat run-in, there's likely to be someone who's faster than me. I prefer those harder finishes and now it'll be more than a tactical battle."
"But we'll just have to adapt, and rethink how to tackle a different kind of finale. I'm sure we can do that."
With that penchant for uphill finishes in mind, it only makes sense Cosnefroy is hoping conclude his season with the Canadian WorldTour Classics – "the pandemic permitting" – then probably do some Italian one-day races like Tre Valli Varesine before finishing his year in Paris-Tours.
However, if other years are anything to go by, the upbeat Frenchman will likely have had a big impact on the one-day racing scene long before that.
