“We don't have the strongest rider in the world. We shouldn't take people for fools”: Voeckler presents the French selection for the World Championships

Valentin Madouas, médaillé d’argent aux JO, fait partie de la sélection tricolore. MAXPPP – Guillaume Saligot/OUEST-FRANCE

The road race is scheduled for Sunday, September 29. With Alaphilippe, Bardet and Madouas on the French side.

Julian Alaphilippe, Romain Bardet and Olympic vice-champion Valentin Madouas will be the spearheads of the French team for the Road World Championships in Zurich, coach Thomas Voeckler announced on Friday.

Julien Bernard, Romain Grégoire, Pavel Sivakov, Rudy Molard and David Gaudu complete the selection of eight riders for the road race that will take place on Sunday, September 29, while Bruno Armirail and Thibaut Guernalec will compete in the time trial on the program starting this Sunday with minimal chances of a medal.

A team that has allure

Kevin Vauquelin and Christophe Laporte, Olympic bronze medalist and pillar of the Blues, are the main absentees. The former is experiencing "a bout of fatigue" according to his team Arkéa-B & B Hotels after winning a stage of the Tour de France and participating in the Olympic Games, while Laporte, vice-world champion in 2022, is paying the price for the mountainous profile of the road race (273 km and 4,470 meters of positive elevation gain).

“Given the elevation gain, it wasn't even a topic. I hope Christophe will have other routes that suit him better”, explains Thomas Voeckler. Guillaume Martin and Warren Barguil were not selected “by choice”.

The French team for the World Championships:

Road race:
Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step, 32 years old), Romain Bardet (DSM, 33 years old), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ, 28 years old), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek, 32 years old), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ, 21 years old), Pavel Sivakov (UAE, 27 years old), Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ, 35 years old), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ, 27 years old).

Time Trial:
Bruno Armirail (Décathlon-AG2R, 30 years old), Thibaut Guernalec (Arkéa-B & B Hôtels, 27 years old)

Voeckler bets on the collective

As for Quentin Pacher, who was in Voeckler's thoughts, he recently suffered a broken collarbone in a fall during training. The coach considers that his team has "the pace" even if it does not have in its ranks a super favorite like the Slovenians Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic, the Belgian Remco Evenepoel or the Dutch Mathieu van der Poel, reigning world champion.

We are more outsiders, especially on this type of course

"We do not show up with the strongest rider in the world. We must not take people for fools, insists Voeckler. We are also not presenting ourselves with the status that we could have had at the time of Imola or Leuven", in 2020 and 2021 during Alaphilippe's two world titles.

"We are more outsiders, especially on this type of course. Over the whole year, a good number of riders are superior to us", the coach further emphasizes. “That doesn't mean we aren't ambitious, quite the contrary”, adds Voeckler, who is banking on the team and racing intelligence with a squad that is generally very experienced, apart from the young Grégoire, with four thirty-somethings in particular.