And suddenly, a swarm of congratulations falls on Valentin Ferron. At 24, the young rider from the TotalEnergies team has just offered himself the best of his career at the end of the avenue du Maréchal-Foch in Gap. By extricating himself under the red flame of a breakaway of six riders, he is ahead of two other Frenchmen more experienced than him: the stainless Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels) and Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic). It is the third French victory on this Critérium du Dauphiné after his teammate Alexis Vuillermoz on Monday then David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) the next day. This is also the first time in… twenty years that three tricolor riders raise their arms on a Critérium du Dauphiné.
100 meters after the line, Ferron is overwhelmed with emotion. His teammates embrace him. “You finally have your victory,” says Fabien Grellier, throwing his bike on the ground to embrace the hero of the day. Alexis Vuillermoz, dubs her in turn “Bravo Man, she’s beautiful that one”. The Belgian on the team, Dries Van Gestel, repeats to him like a mantra: “Machine, machine, you’re a machine! “.
Ferron, who is one of the candidates for the next Tour, probably validated his selection this Friday. “He has been chasing a success for quite some time now,” says his teammate Fabien Grellier. A third place on the Route Adélie on April 1st then a 2nd on Paris-Camembert twelve days later, had whetted his appetite. “He’s a promising youngster,” continues Grellier. We can speak of revelation. Valentin is a polite and well-mannered person. I am moved because he deserves this great victory. In the jargon we speak of a runner like him by saying: it’s a safe bet. Namely a guy you can always count on. Already last year, we understood that he would be strong when he finished 3rd in the Trofeo Matteotti. »
More comfortable on his bike than behind a microphone, Valentin Ferron had trouble putting words to his joy. “This victory was played in the freshness and I wanted to arrive alone,” he explains. The paradox of his team is that it has signed a mega-star of cycling this year but that it wins mainly with riders from the training center. Because in addition to Alexis Vuillermoz, Mathieu Burgaudeau, trained like Ferron among the amateurs of Vendée U, the reserve of TotalEnergies, won a stage in Paris-Nice.
“The arrival of Peter Sagan pulled the whole team up, notes Ferron. This season, we are more involved in the race by running at the forefront. And those who perform were already there last year. »
The winner of the day was just a little taken aback when he was told a remark by one of the beaten of the day, Victor Lafay, believing that the aerodynamic bikes Specialized, the equipment supplier of TotalEnergies this year at the request of Peter Sagan , had offered a nice advantage to the winner. “We have very good bikes but also good legs,” he replies. With those legs and other bikes, we would have won anyway. »