it’s been a while since I last made an update but that has it’s reasons. I was busy riding in Asia, Denmark, The Netherlands and my beautiful home country of France. I’ll start talking about Asia, Tour of Qinghai Lake. The stage race is long and I immediately wanted to show myself and I tried that by jumping in the first chance for a breakaway. I didn’t make it however but I at least have a neat picture.


the attack for the finish maybe?, no but I can dream right

Surprisingly in the following stages that featured a big mountain I hung on to the peloton meaning that after 3 stages I was still in the same time as the peloton. In the 4th stage I lost connection to the peloton and I lost almost 25 minutes.

In stage 5 I was part of the riders that got Jempy Drucker to the front of the peloton to prepare him for the end sprint. Drucker finished it brilliantly by finishing 4th place. Stage 6 was mountainous enough to drop me this time I only lost 10 minutes instead of 25 minutes so an improvement for me.

stage 7 was a special one for me, I was interviewed by Alan Corbett Holicson just before the stage. I was a bit nervous resulting in me messing up my English and misspoke a few times. I even said that I was in progress of a cool down just before a stage, I meant to say that I was doing my warming-up if you want to read the interview, I’ve added it below. the stage itself was pretty well, I finished 59th that day, one of the better finishes by a sprinter that day



the next few stages where mountain less so I had the job again of bringing Drucker to the front of the peloton. it resulted into a 3rd place in stages 8 and 9. Stage 10 was hilly so my job again was just to finish.


dropping from the front after leaving Drucker in the Omega Pharma train in stage 8

the last three stages were all flat which gave me three chances to show myself in the sprint set up. it only on stage 11 I was strong enough to be part of the set up. Drucker was the sprinter on service that day and finished 8th. stage 12 featured a small hill that was tough enough for me to lose contact with the peloton. stage 13 also had a small but steep hill. combined with the efforts from the 12 previous stages I again lost contact with the peloton.


the small hill on stage 12 was hard enough to drop me, eliminating me for the sprint



a week and a bit later, I started along with my brother Aquali, in Denmark. 6 stages of racing against each other and the rest of the peloton and another chapter for the Feunard Games.
Stage 1 was completely flat however Drucker was absent it meant that Roy Jans and me were the team leaders in the sprints. we didn’t get a chance to contest in the sprints, sprinters like Ciolek, Petacchi, Abundi, and Hanzen didn’t allow some young Frenchie from a team they never heard about in front. stage 2 it was Jans time to shine, thanks to Van Goolen and Vantornout he was at the front but the level of competition in Denmark was too high for him. 27th place was all he got today. at stage 3 neither of us played a roll of importance. In stage 4 the crosswinds took me out of contention but at least Van Goolen was in the breakaway that made it until the end ultimately finishing 3rd. stage number 5 was a time trial and the result however the noticeable event wasn’t the result (54th place, equaling my best season result so far) but the fact that Aquali and me posted the same time. actually the two of us have always finished in the same group, with only a flat stage left it’s likely that we’ll end in the same time in a 6 day stage race. in stage 6 it was again a breakaway that won and we had another rider in it. however unlike Van Goolen a few stages ago, Kevin Pauwels won the stage from the breakaway so we took something home from Denmark. Aquali and me did indeed finish in the same time in the GC. over 15 minutes down on Birtles.


Kevin wins his stage, meaning champagne for the whole team, later that night


almost a month later I started in the Netherlands for the Dutch Food Valley Classic, with a unusual motif however. because the manager of Lotto Belisol loves this race so much and sends Greipel to this race I saw a change to ask the big german sprinter for some pointers how to improve my own sprint. even though he couldn’t help much because he’s never seen me sprint but he gave some general tips that helped me. some other guys like Styber and Brouwer also had some usefull information for me. Boasson Hagen is a jerk though . the race itself was pretty uneventful from the teams and my aspect. I just stayed in the peloton all day chatting while only Andy Cappelle tried to be in the chasing break. Jelle Wallays won, leaving Honkisz behind and Greipel unable to catch up.


the final race I’ll talk about today is Tour de Vendee, where I “jokily� was mentioned as one of the riders that could take a surprise win. when riders like Brouwer, Hanzen, Goos, Coquard and Matthews are at the starting line. my chances of victory seem pretty unlikely. I spend the first quarter of the race chatting with some of the others sprinters, hoping to give me some pointers. with Cappelle in the breakaway it seemed needless to go in pursuit or to join the break. this time there wasn’t a breakaway victory as Brouwer beat Coquard, Goss and Hanzen in a sprint. I finished was 95th.


although absent from my last update, there has been made some progress for the Feunard games with the stages of Post Denmark Rundt and Vendee races added into the results and I almost got a perfect game. only stage 5 of Post Denmark Rundt was in my disadvantage (with him finishing 53th, and I only 54th). I’m now at 9 points against 2 of Aquali and Pyroli still at 1. however as I’m writing this, Tour of Hainan is still in progress and I won’t spoil results but it’s not going good for me.

current table

	Best of Three	First	Last	Points
Voltali (Accent Jobs)	0	9	3	9
Aquali (Sojasun)	0	2	9	2
Pyroli (Caja-Rural)	0	1	0	1