2023-05-20 20:28:42
He himself says that he “can’t believe it”. Bruno Armirail, 29, is the new leader of the Giro and will appear at the start of the 15th stage, this Sunday, with the pink jersey on his back. A first for a Frenchman since a certain Laurent Jalabert in 1999. However, the plan was quite different this Saturday on the roads of Italy, for this stage linking Sierre to Cassano Magnago.
“It was not our plan, the goal was to aim for the stage victory. Being more than 18 minutes away this morning, I was very far from imagining taking the pink jersey tonight, he said once the news was made official, amazed. I can’t realize. The Groupama-FDJ rider relegates his runner-up, the Briton Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), to 1′41′.
“It’s unexpected. We were already hoping to be in the breakaway, but that’s the bike, that’s how it is! It’s a great day for us, since we are also in the pink jersey on the Four Days of Dunkirk with Romain Grégoire, appreciated Marc Madiot, especially after the emotional day that we experienced yesterday. »
“A very good teammate”
The day before, the training manager had indeed long believed in the victory of Thibaut Pinot, finally second in a mountain stage shortened due to weather conditions. To start his day as well as possible and progress among the breakaways, it was a certain… Bruno Armirail who had been assigned.
Because it is indeed under this role of team member that we are used to observing him. In 2021, he was notably the lieutenant of Arnaud Démare and David Gaudu on the Tour de France. He then told our colleagues from L’Équipe that he enjoyed this status. “In a cycling team, it’s like in the factory: there is a hierarchy and it is better that someone who is not made to be boss never becomes one. Me, I like my team member status. I take a lot of pride in it,” he said.
An involvement welcomed by its sports director, Sébastien Joly, this Saturday at the microphone of Eurosport. “He’s a very good team player. Yesterday he proved it again, he did the job for Thibaut, and today, it is precisely Thibaut who gave him carte blanche to thank him for what he had done. “Marc Madiot abounds:” He is someone reliable, kind and simple. “Up to now, the runner hadn’t often been on the podium. His greatest victory dates back to 2022, when, not selected for the Tour de France, he won the title of French time trial champion.
The career of the native of Bagnères-de-Bigorre (Hautes-Pyrénées) could however have taken a completely different turn in January 2015. 2014 French U23 champion in the time trial, he is about to make his professional debut , via the Army team, when he suffered a terrible fall during training.
Triple patella fracture in 2015
“I was hit head-on, thrown into the air for 5-6 meters and I landed in a field”, he told the “Parisian” from his hospital bed. And detailed the circumstances of the accident. “I blame the driver because she was driving too fast in a bend and there was ice. She went to fault, spinning. His two training companions had been able to avoid him. Not him. “That day, I could have died,” he added.
After, among other things, a triple operation on the left patella and a long period of rehabilitation, he finally returned to competition. But with difficulty. For lack of results, it is not retained by the Army, and switches back to amateurs. We have to wait until 2018 to see him join the pros of Groupama-FDJ. “My brother had spotted that he had strength,” recalls Marc Madiot.
“He’s a tireless rider, confirms William Bonnet, his former teammate. He knows how to lead a group, a peloton, and wear down his opponents one by one. He always gives his all. Since the start of this Giro, he has already been in a lot of demand. There, he went to get this jersey. It is all his work that is rewarded. “” He’s a needy, completes Madiot. He needs to have confidence in himself and I think, I hope, that this pink jersey will help him to take a step forward. »
After the stage, Bruno Armirail promised that he would try to “keep” and “enjoy” this jersey. “It’s still something exceptional for a teammate like me,” he savored. It will not be an easy task, with as of this Sunday, three ascents to climb on the roads of Lombardy.
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