Injured on the Vuelta, Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) will not participate in the road race for the European Championships in Trento this Sunday. He is replaced within the French team by Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels P / B KTM).
Change in the French cycling team six days before the road race for the European Championships in Trento. Guillaume Martin will not be able to hold his place and was replaced on Monday by Franck Bonnamour by coach Thomas Voeckler. Despite his beautiful ninth place in the Vuelta, the rider of the Cofidis team, who had already competed in the Tour de France (eighth) and the Tokyo Olympic Games (27th), finished the Tour of Spain exhausted and injured in the ribs and sacrum following a fall, and prefers to leave its place.
« I had to go to the European Championships but it is wiser and more honest for the French team, and more respectful of my body, to decline the selection. I’ll take some rest. We all remember what happened to Thibaut Pinot. He continued the Tour de France with a similar injury and his pain lasted for over a year. I certainly don’t want to go through what he went through. I will take care of myself before considering the next step », Declared the French climber, who has already run 74 days in competition this year, with L’Equipe on Sunday evening.
Super combative bonnamour from the last Tour de France
To replace him, it is therefore Franck Bonnamour who was called. The 26-year-old rider revealed himself to the general public during the last Tour de France, where he was often at the front, finishing four times in the Top 10, including three times in mountain stages, for finish 2nd in the general classification and win the super-combative prize. Since then, the Breton has notably finished second in the Tour du Limousin – Nouvelle Aquitaine, seventh in the Tour Poitou-Charentes and eighth in the Tour du Jura.
He joined in the selection Romain Bardet (DSM), Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samscic), Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Aurélien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën), Pierre-Luc Périchon (Cofidis) and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ). Objective for the French team: to win the blue jersey with yellow stars. Since the arrival of professional riders at the European Championships in 2016, the Blues have had to settle for two silver medals in the road race, for Julian Alaphilippe in 2016 (behind Peter Sagan) and for Arnaud Démare in 2020 ( behind Giacomo Nizzolo).
