2023-10-18 13:38:28
And France won the final sprint! A relentless and indecisive sprint until the end, until the final turn of the wheel… Sixth in the world ranking of nations before entering the final straight – and the last races of the circuit -, France managed to grab a final place in extremis. She ends the season in the Top 5 of the UCI, the International Cycling Union, published Tuesday evening. If the officialization of the Olympic quotas will not be revealed until mid-November, the positions are now fixed. And doubts lifted.
Because thanks to this rise, the French camp will therefore be able to field four runners during the men’s road race (273 km) of the Paris Olympic Games, on August 3, 2024. The first five nations – Belgium, Denmark, Slovenia, Great Britain and therefore France – will indeed be able to present themselves with a maximum of four representatives.
The next five – Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, the United States – will only be able to field three riders. Switzerland, Portugal, Colombia, Norway, Germany, Austria, Ireland, Canada, Kazakhstan and New Zealand will only start with two riders while countries classified between 21st and 53rd place will only have one representative.
Good news obtained thanks to the good performances achieved by Cofidis riders Guillaume Martin and Axel Zingle in the Japan Cup – third and seventh respectively – and the 2nd place of Rémy Rochas this weekend at the Tour du Guangxi, the last event of the year.
This 5th place in the world offers more possibilities to French coach Thomas Voeckler who will thus avoid headaches. France has indeed experienced excellent results in recent years with Julian Alaphilippe’s two world champion titles in 2020 and 2021, as well as Christophe Laporte’s world silver medal in 2022 and his European champion title. in September 2023.
The Blues of cycling have not been back on an Olympic podium in the road event since Arnaud Geyre’s silver medal at the Melbourne Games in… 1956. In Rio in 2016, Julian Alaphilippe failed in 4th place after a fall.
Among women, France finished eighth. There will therefore only be three Tricolores in Paris for the online event. However, a progression compared to the Tokyo Games in 2021 where only one runner (Juliette Labous) was at the start.
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