News: Junior Classique des Alpes

British Junior riders in the AG2R Citroen U19 team finally get international race in the Classique des Alpes on May 29 which in the past was won by Tim Wellens, a 128km 1.1 ranked road race in France with 5 mountain passes

News: Junior Classique des Alpes
Photos: Gurvan @gussevphoto

Thanks to the AG2R Citroen U19 team for the following info

Links:
Startlist https://firstcycling.com/race.php?r=1025&y=2021&k=8
AG2R Citroen U19 team: https://ag2rcitroenu19team.com/2020/10/19/effectif-2021/
Race Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/classiquedesalpes/
Race Website: http://www.classique-des-alpes.fr/#

After the beginning of the season with a lot of cancellation and postponements, the Classique des Alpes Juniors will take place on Saturday, May 29th. The goal of the organizing committee is to enable as many riders as possible to participate and so the AG2R Citroen U19 will take to the start with a team composed of 4 team riders and 2 guest riders.

The British riders in the race will be Benjamin Peatfield from Bolton in North West England, Joe Kiely (Welwyn Wheelers) is from Cheshunt, Hertfordshire and the third rider is Maximilian Cushway from Chichester, West Sussex. He’s a rider who moved to France (Vannes) when six years old so isn’t yet a well known name in the UK scene (a similar scenaro to Simon Carr).

Benjamin Peatfield

Benjamin and Joe moved to France last summer and are living with team mates and their families over here. Benjamin says “I am living just north of Bordeaux and Joe is on the Belgian border in Charleville Mezieres. We haven’t actually been able to do any racing as of yet due to the covid situation so this will be our first proper race of the season. We have just returned from a training camp with the team in the Alps where we did a recce of the race and got some solid training in in the mountains.”

“The race is definitely mountainous! It is 130km with roughly 2,600 metres of climbing. It starts flat but is nothing but hilly after the 60km mark. Personally as a sprinter I’m there in more of a team role but we are definitely going to make a mark on the race!”

An international team
Maximilian Cushway (Véloce Vannetais), Benjamin Peatfield (Gbr, The Green Jersey CC), Abel Odon Rosado Novillo (Gsport Bicicletas Sanchis) and Joe Kiely (Gbr, Charleville Mézières) will take to the start, with Robin Donzé, Swiss rider (Humard Vélo-Passion Chazal) and Viggo Moore (Lux Cycling Team), an American rider living in Germany.

Viggo was due to participate with his team but they can’t travel from the United States. That’s why we welcome them in AG2R CITROËN U19 TEAM in order to enable their participation to the Classique des Alpes Juniors.

10 other riders of the team
The other riders from AG2R Citroen U19 can be selected with their regional teams because the Classique des Alpes Juniors is the first cup of the French Juniors Cup. That’s the case for 10 of them: Thomas Tachot with Auvergne-Rhône Alpes, Pierre Gautherat and Romain Grégoire with Bourgogne Franche Comté, Léandre Lozouet with Normandie, Estevan Delaunay with Centre-Val de Loire, Noa Isidore and Léo Kraemer with Grand Est, Noah Detalle and Maxence Place with Team Wallonie and finally Tristan Poucet with Hauts de France.

Joe Kiely

The team’s David Giraud, sports director says “The Classique des Alpes Juniors is, with the National Championship, the most important one day race of the calendar for the majority of the riders. Concerning the team, we will be outsider on the race. We have good climbers but probably not the best one. We will have to attack, and hope for an unexpected scenario to unfold. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Auto Eider Bayern) and Lenny Martinez (Bourgogne Franche-Comté Committee) will be the favorite riders of the race. If we want to win, we must not be with them at the beginning of the Mont du Chat.”

The Race
The start will be in Ruy-Montceau and the finish at la Bridoire. The Classique des Alpes Juniors will have 22 teams this year on the start line. With 128,2km, the riders will have to climb 5 mountain passes :

Col du Mont Tournier, 10,3km at 5,5%
Côte de St Genix les Villages, 3,2km at 5,9%
Col de la Crusille, 3,5km at 5%
Mont du Chat, 9km at 7,8%
Col du Blanchet, 5,3km at 4,4%.

It’s a mythical race where we have already performed well in the past. Just recently, the defending winner in 2019, Valentin Paret-Peintre, who finished also second in 2018. In 2016, Nicolas Malle won a few months before becoming European champion. Then, Simon Gugliemi finished second in 2015, as well as David Gaudu (Grand Tour stage winner) in 2014 and Nans Peters (TDF stage winner) in 2012. Pierre-Henri Le Cuisinier finished 3rd in 2011.

Maximilian Cushway

How to follow the race ?
It will be possible to follow the race on the social media of AG2R CITROËN U19 TEAM. The French website Direct Vélo will have a live feed too. The organisation of the Classique des Alpes Juniors is going to show a video broadcast of the last 60 kilometres, on their Facebook Page, with Lilian Couillez and Florian Vachon, winner in 2002.