Tronet beats Gallopin for French road title

Steven Tronet (Auber 93) claimed the French title in a crash-marred finale. Hot favorite Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) went down and runner-up Anthony Roux (FDJ) was disqualified for having changed his line. Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) and Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) ended up on the final podium deprived of representatives from the French teams set to ride the Tour de France next week.

“Since I won stage 1 of the Route du Sud [in a very difficult finale in Auch], I believed I was able to become the French champion”, Tronet explained. “My friends, my family, my teams convinced me that I could win this race.”

Nevertheless, Tronet, 28, wasn’t exactly a favorite. The course in Chantonnay with three hills on the course was equally favorable for a long lasting breakaway or a sprint finish. A 13-man front group comprising Jérôme Coppel (IAM Cycling), Matthieu Boulo (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Julien Guay (Auber 93), Rudy Molard and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Bryan Nauleau and Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Francis Mourey, Olivier Le Gac and Kenny Elissonde (FDJ), Pierre-Roger Latour and Christophe Riblon (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Jérôme Mainard (Armée de Terre) stayed away after 100km.

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Riblon, Coppel and Molard were rejoined by Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin), Romain Bardet and Damien Gaudin (AG2R-La Mondiale), Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Julien Antomarchi (Roubaix-Lille Métropole) with two laps to go (34km). Voeckler did a great race once again. He attacked as much as he could but Cofidis seemed to have the race in its hand with five riders escorting Bouhanni in the final lap.

“Everyone was kind of alone in the finale”, Gallopin explained. “It was a group of strong men at the end. We had to make the race hard for Cofidis. I didn’t want to be second or third behind Bouhanni. My intention was to attack at the flamme rouge but Romain [Bardet] did it before me. I countered but Steven launched his sprint at the right moment.”

“I always like this kind of very long sprint”, Tronet confirmed. None of the podium finishers witnessed the crash that took Bouhanni down with 300 metres to go. It happened behind them when the 2012 French champion touched the wheel of Roux who was looking for a way on the left side as the wind was blowing from the left.

“Bouhanni deserved to win because of all the work done by Cofidis before,” said Chavanel, "but it’s not a real surprise to see Tronet winning after what he did at the Route du Sud.”

Gallopin was adamant that Bouhanni wouldn’t have necessarily won, hadn’t he crashed.

“Tronet was also very strong”, said the Parisian. “I’m really happy for him and for his team. I’ve myself raced for Auber 93 before. They’ve taught me a lot and they’ve done a lot for French cycling and young riders.”

Auber 93 already won the French title in 2000 with Christophe Capelle in the same area, in Le Poiré-sur-Vie, also in Vendée. But they were a Tour de France team at the time with BigMat as a main sponsor. They’ve been around in professional cycling under the management of Stéphane Javalet for twenty-three years. Everyone likes “les p’tits gars d’Auber” but there won’t be the French champion jersey at the Tour de France this year.

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