Arnaud Démare : "a chance to test myself"
With 5 races in as many days, the Challenge Mallorca events mark the return of many riders from the ARKEA-B&B HOTELS team. And for some, it will be their first time under their new colours…
Daily line-ups :
24/01 | Trofeo Calvia : Vincenzo Albanese, Clément Champoussin, Ewen Costiou, Raúl García Pierna, Elie Gesbert, Donavan Grondin, Lukasz Owsian
25/01 | Trofeo Ses Salines-Felanitx : Vincenzo Albanese, Jenthe Biermans, Florian Dauphin, David Dekker, Arnaud Démare, Donavan Grondin, Lukasz Owsian
26/01 | Trofeo Serra Tramuntana : Clément Champoussin, Ewen Costiou, David Dekker, Arnaud Démare, Raúl García Pierna, Elie Gesbert, Lukasz Owsian
27/01 | Trofeo Pollença – Port d’Andratx : Vincenzo Albanese, Jenthe Biermans, Clément Champoussin, Ewen Costiou, Florian Dauphin, Raúl García Pierna, Elie Gesbert
28/01 | Trofeo Palma : Jenthe Biermans, Florian Dauphin, David Dekker, Arnaud Démare, Raúl García Pierna, Donavan Grondin, Lukasz Owsian
“I’m really happy with my winter preparation, between the collective training sessions with the team and another one on an individual basis. I hope I’ve now recovered well from all that work. The Challenge Mallorca will be my first race of the new season, with two possible sprint finishes. It’ll be an opportunity to gauge myself and get my bearings. It’s an early start to the season, but it’ll give me a chance to get back into the swing of things. I know it always takes me a while to get back into the rhythm. I’m happy to be discovering this competition and the motivation is there with a great team around me. Now it’s time to race!”
“I already took part in the Challenge Mallorca 2 years ago. These are tough races where good positioning often makes the difference. We’ve got some strong riders in the team who can go on to achieve good results. My role will be to help them out. This will also be my first race in the ARKEA-B&B HOTELS jersey. It’s another step in my career, my first season at UCI World Tour level. We worked hard during our training sessions in December and January, so I’m really looking forward to racing now!”
“We’ve got 2 potential sprint finishes and 3 other more puncheur-climber races to look forward to over the next 5 days. For the sprints, we’re going to try to get Arnaud Démare on the right track. It’s important for him to win quickly but above all to do clean sprints to build up his confidence. On the other days, we have riders who are perfect for this kind of terrain: Clément Champoussin, Elie Gesbert, Ewen Costiou and Vincenzo Albanese are also the men we can count on to set a positive dynamic in motion.”