At the start this Sunday of the last stage of the Tour du Côte d’Or, the home trainers were out on the side of the SCO Dijon-Team Materiel-velo.com. The Dijonnais had an idea behind their heads. “We did the work upstream to be operational from the start. We fully intended to try to overthrow the general. We knew the difficulties at the start of the race “, launches Nicolas Debeaumarché at DirectVelo. The 23-year-old Saône-et-Loirien goes downhill after the first GPM. “I’m going out on my own. Two runners join me (Killian Théot and Damien Poisson) “.
“WE DID EVERYTHING BUT NICO AGAIN THREE TIMES MORE THAN US”
In the second GPM, a cons of eight riders comes out of the peloton with another representative of the Burgundy club, Joris Delbove. “I followed. I saw that it was leaving, suddenly I insisted “, admits Aubois, who will be celebrating his 21st birthday in three days. A teammate in the yellow jersey Alex Baudin (AG2R Citroën U23 Team) was also present, namely Bastien Tronchon. “He was placed overall but behind me. I drove all the same “. A few kilometers further, the junction was made between the leading group and the block. “We waited for this group. Joris was in the best position. I spent a lot of time “, said the elder. His young colleague confirms. “We put everything but Nico still three times more than us”.
Despite their efforts, the gap never exceeded 1’30 “-40“. “I tried to widen the gap and get everyone in the group to make it work. We never really took a lot of time unfortunately ”, recognizes Nicolas Debeaumarché. “Nico told me not to give everything on the flat part for 80 terminals so as not to explode in the final as Bastien Tronchon was not rolling”, adds Joris Delbove.
“I SAID, I WILL EMPTY THE TANK BEFORE THE LAST TURN”
Once on the final circuit, the attacks started to fuse in the breakaway. “There were two interests, those who played the general and those who aimed for the stage. It began to be observed. For some, the less they do, the better they are. Obviously from there, it’s complicated. In the end, I tried to anticipate things and make the effort “, explains Nicolas Debeaumarché. In the last lap, he starts in a group of four riders. “At the start, I don’t ride because I play Joris’ game hoping he can do the jump. When we see behind that it regroups, I play my all-out for the stage “. Joris Delbove is indeed taken over by the peloton. “When I saw it was 15 seconds behind, I thought too bad. I’m going to leave Nico, I saw that he had good legs even if he made a lot of efforts. I think it was the strongest of the race ”.
Nicolas Debeaumarché and his acolytes are caught up in the red flame, but he does not say his last word. “I didn’t want to resign myself to it happening in the sprint and going 30th. I thought to myself, I’ll empty the tank before the last turn. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that it was going up to my right. I put what I had left. No one has passed. I manage to turn 1st. I just get picked up by (Giacomo) Ballabio who was with me. I know it faster than I, I tried to let go. I tried to anticipate, but he was stronger “.
“WE COULD NOT DO MORE”
Despite the disappointment of having come close to stage victory, he was satisfied. “We did it right. We were beaten by AG2R Citroën who played really well. We can say well done to them even if they were helped when I think they were strong enough to do the job alone. There are always teams that get trapped and roll too. We may perhaps have some regrets about this. But we have nothing to be ashamed of in the sense that we did everything to try to win “.
His teammate Joris Delbove nods. “We did everything we could. We couldn’t do more. AG2R Citroën was really very strong “. 4th overall before the last stage, he still climbs onto the final podium. “I’m happy to be 2nd in an overall classification. this is the first time that it happens to me. I was there for the three days so I’m happy even though I’m sure I’m disappointed not to have won for the colleagues because they did a crazy job. We will win next time ”. The two future trainees at St-Michel-Auber 93 did not leave empty-handed with each a distinctive jersey, that of the best climber for Joris Delbove and that of the most combative for Nicolas Debeaumarché. And above all with the feeling of accomplishment.
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