Rémi Cavagna retakes elite men's French time trial title with dominate ride

Rémi Cavagna (Soudal-QuickStep) regained the elite men’s time trial title at the French Road Championships on Thursday, finishing 33 seconds faster than last year’s winner Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ). Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) trailed 1:13 behind Cavagna for third, keeping Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) off the podium by three seconds.

Cavagna set the best times over the uphill time checks on the back half of the race by a few seconds over Armirail and then dominated the final kilometre for the win. Armirail was the last rider on the course but after recording the fastest time on the opening 7.5km, he then began to lose time to Cavagna. 

“It’s amazing! To have this jersey again means a lot to me. It’s an honour to wear the colours of my country in the time trials for the next twelve months, it’s something that makes me very proud," Cavagan said after taking back the national jersey.

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"I knew the parcours suited me, I made some recons this week and was aware that on the final hill I needed to still have some power left, so I put in a solid ride from the beginning but kept some energy to increase the tempo there.”

The race against the clock began in Hazebrouck riding across the cobbles on the General de Gaulle square with mostly flat terrain for the opening three-quarters of the 31.3km course. Once near Cassel, two short climbs averaging between 5.2% to 6.2% led to the final 900-metre climb on more cobblestones to the finish.

From the early starters, Baptist Gilet (OC Locmine) of Brittany landed in the hot seat with a time of 42:23. His time was eclipsed by 27 seconds when Mathias Ribeiro da Cruz (Laval Cycling 53) stormed across the course with the substantial time gains over the three final time checks, posting 41:56.

While the heavy favourites were on the early part of the course, Jérémy Cabot (total Energies) and Ewen Costiou (Team Arkéa-Samsic) briefly held the top times, separated by one second. Cabot finished fifth with 1:33 and Costiou sixth with 1:34.

Cavagna, who won the 2021 French title, had not been tested in many races against the clock this season, but did finish third in the Critérium du Dauphiné ITT which offered a similar distance as the French National Championships.

Results

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