Mickaël Leveau
Sports Director
The Madrid stage was cancelled due to demonstrations. But what I really want to take away from this race is how well our riders behaved, and in particular the state of mind of all of them, including the staff, and the commitment they showed during the three weeks of racing. Half of them were new to a Grand Tour, and for the six who finished it was quite simply their very first Vuelta a España. Youngsters such as Pierre Thierry, Léandre Lozouet, Louis Rouland and Victor Guernalec were on the offensive, not hesitating to throw themselves into the fray every day. This state of mind will enable them to pass a milestone in the weeks to come. On this Vuelta, we scored a podium on one stage, two fourth-place finishes and one fifth-place finish, with Jenthe Birmans in particular, and the best climber jersey acquired at the start of the race by Alessandro Verre. My thoughts also go out to Cristián Rodriguez, who was forced to retire from the race in Andorra, and Raùl Gracia Pierna, who seemed to be gaining in strength as the days went by, but crashed out the day after the rest day.
