Benoit Cosnefroy has 26 years old and not much in the way of ideasBut with this great concreteness, in 2020 he placed second in the Flèche Wallonne won by Hirschi and the following year he beat Alaphilippe in the two-man sprint in PlouayYou see him little, but he's always there. Meanwhile, the rider of the AG2R-Citroen he made some important life choices, such as leaving Cherbourg, the town on the Channel where he was born for move to the south of France to avoid longer journeys and find better training grounds closer to the team headquarters.
IERI (Yesterday) At the finish line of the Amstel Gold Race he was for a few minutes the happiest man on earth (Opening photo). He dreamed so much of the great victory that he told all his teammates about it as they reached the finish line one by one. Then, in a second, the blow of the photo finish hit him right on the headHe accused her, but then he came back down to earth.
"I'm a person who puts things into perspective quickly," he said. "It's one of my strengths. I was close to winning, but If I start crying after the podium at Amstel, I might as well stop runningI was incredibly happy when I was told I'd won, but you have to put things into perspective. I'm happy with my second place. When I stood on the podium, I was emotional—moments like these are rare in a career. Mathieu van der Poel, who was the favourite, was not there. I don't see why I should get down."
Always lucid
Kwiatkowski told to have put him in the middle, forcing him to shoot more with the pretext that he had Pidcock behind him. But The Frenchman's on-the-fly analysis was even more lucidNo traps, everything calculated.
«I don't have many regrets – he said after the awards ceremony – because If they had come back from behind, I would have finished seventh or eighthI had Mathieu Van der Poel's incredible sprint in 2019 in my head, and I told myself he could even regain that 20 seconds in the last 500 meters. It wasn't easy to manage. I felt stronger than "Kwiato" and I hoped that in a sprint launched from far away he would finally sit down..
«I did a two-stage sprintThe second time – he explained – when he tried to overtake me while I was on the right side of the barrier, I didn't give up. On the line, I had the feeling he was passing me. Then it was all so close that I thought it was possible I had won. When someone from behind the podium came to show me the photo finish, there were no more doubts.. That's how it went, I lost and now I hope I can make up for it."
Revenge on the Ardennes
Rebuilding means recharging your batteries and showing up again aggressively for the Ardennes Classics, with the knowledge that you're still in good shape.
«I feel that the shape is good – he specified – I would say very good, I understood it last week at the Circuit de la Sarthe (He was 2nd in the first stage and then also in the general classification behind Kooij, ed.). I could be more controlled in the next races, but obviously I'll be looking for a victory. Now a good period is starting for me. On Wednesday I'll race the Brabant Arrow, then I'll go back home to Savoy for return to the Flèche Wallonne and the Liège-Bastogne-Liège».
He felt he was doing well at the Circuit de La Sarthe, finishing second behind Olav Kooij At the Tirreno in the stage of the walls of Fermo, Cosnefroy stamped to Alaphilippe
He felt he was doing well at the Circuit de La Sarthe, finishing second behind Olav Kooij At the Tirreno in the stage of the walls of Fermo, Cosnefroy stamped to Alaphilippe
And if in 2020 Alaphilippe was not in that Flèche and Cosnefroy said that one day he would have liked to compete with him on the Mur d'Huy, this time he will be satisfiedThe world champion also has the same bellicose intentions.
