France may not have gotten a medal in the elite women's road race at the UCI Road World Championships held in Montreal on Saturday, but Juliette Berthet's fifth-place and the team finishing with three riders in the top-10 marked the building blocks for a promising future, especially ahead of the 'Super Worlds' held in the Haute-Savoie region next summer.
In an interview with Cyclingnews from the mixed zone minutes after crossing the finish line in what has been regarded as one of the most challenging races for the rainbow jersey in recent memory, Berthet said she was proud of her team and had no regrets.
"I didn't make it, but I'm proud of myself. It was a super hard race. I felt good, but I have no regrets because the four in front of me were just a bit stronger today," Berthet said.
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Berthet was part of a selection that included eventual winner and new World Champion Demi Vollering (Netherlands), silver medallist Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland), and bronze medallist Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), along with Puck Pieterse (Netherlands), Dominika Włodarczyk (Poland), and time trial World Champion Marlen Reusser (Switzerland).
Also in the move were her France teammates Maeva Squiban and Célia Gery. The move formed after Squiban attacked 52km out on the circuit's gruelling ascent, Camillien-Houde forcing the race for the win to ignite, and Vollering giving chase.
"We told Maeva before the race that if she felt like she could go, then she could go, and that is what she did. She picked a perfect moment because when the attacks went there were still three [from France] over the top of the climb," Berthet said.
Vollering was the next to surge with 38km to go and gained a lead that never got more than 23 seconds, and eight riders chasing: Longo Borghini, Niewiadoma, Squiban, Célia Gery, Berthet, Włodarczyk, Reusser and Pieterse sitting on.
Vollering's solo move was ended when Niewiadoma-Phinney and Longo Borghini chased her down to make a lead trio leading into the last lap, with Berthet a whisker off the back, and Reusser chasing. A fitting moment for Berthet and the French team was when Geneviève Gambillon, who won the elite women's road race title in Montreal in 1974, rang the bell to signal the last lap.
"On the last lap, when I crossed the finish line, I was still playing for the title, so that is quite an improvement from my last World Championships, and the other one-day races that I've done this year. I was happy to still be in the lead [group] and I just gave it everything, but my legs were so empty," Berthet said.
"I kept on fighting, especially when I was with Marlen, because you never know; maybe if we came back, and if they were not working with each other in front, maybe it was still possible to come back and try to do an attack, but they were really fast in front so it was not possible."
In the end, Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney sprinted for the rainbow jersey, with Longo Borghini taking third, Reusser fourth and Berthet fifth, her best finish in the elite women's road race at Worlds. Gery finished seventh and Squiban ninth.
"It was an amazing race [for France], to be honest. We were always together. It was nice, and it helps that we fight for the same team; it was super good," Berthet said.
"I think that three in the top 10 is something we have never done in the last eight or nine years. We can be proud, and we have to think about it for the future - that we are a strong team and we will make the podium one day."
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