Jérôme Pineau frustrated at the Tour du Haut-Var

Carlos Betancur (AG2R – La Mondiale) put everyone in his place at the arrival of the 1st stage of the Tour du Haut-Var.  The Colombian grabbed the victory immediately in front of John Degenkolb and Samuel Dumoulin.  IAM Cycling’s new recruit Jérôme Pineau (9th place) barely missed out on challenging the trio for the podium, largely due to a misunderstanding.

“There is nothing worse than being frustrated in our sport.  And that’s how you find me because I missed an opportunity without being able to change anything.  This morning I set out with the intention of winning the day and offering a victory to my new team.  Everything worked well and we stayed at the front of the pack the entire day.  In the final circuit, we were not informed by the organizers that they had changed the number of laps remaining.  So I chose to back off a little so as not to be wasting too much energy, but on the line I heard the bell for the final lap, which confused us.  Obviously, on such a technical course, it is not super easy to regain position.  But I got there, helped a lot by Sébastien Reichenbach (12th) and Jonathan Fumeaux (15th), but we found ourselves hampered by a BMC rider who started the sprint and then I had to make a big effort even to be in the sprint.  Fortunately, everything is still possible because the second stage looks like it will be more selective. It all starts new and we will have a chance to show what we can do.”

For his part, Patrick Schelling worked very hard all day for Sylvain Chavanel and Jérôme Pineau.

“My mission was to be as close as possible to our two French riders and help them in the pack.  I felt comfortable in my work.  My legs turned well, but since I am not used to being in at the mix in a final, I stayed behind a little in the final circuit.  But we had a good race with four IAM Cycling riders in the top 15.”

photos Etienne Garnier @ VeloFotoPro