Tronchon: "It was a crazy day."

May 11 ^th 2025 - 17:52

Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale): “It was a crazy day.”

“I immediately felt I had great legs. I was able to recover well after the Ardennes triple-header—it really did me good. I found the punch I had before and had slightly lost. My goal was to anticipate the race a bit and get into a good group early to avoid having to react later. That’s exactly what I managed to do. I was a bit on my own out there, and I had to deal with some bad luck—two front-wheel punctures—but I stayed calm throughout. It’s my dad’s birthday today, so I was thinking about him a lot. That gave me strength. He told me to have fun out there—and I really did have a blast!

[After the punctures] I thought back to Strade Bianche, another race full of unexpected events, where I also had great sensations. I told myself: it's okay, just ride your race, no point getting frustrated. I ended up in a big chasing group, with only Pierre [Gautherat] up the road. I managed to break away thanks to the great legs I had. Getting back on my own was perfect, and I also took advantage of Kevin Vauquelin’s puncture to close the gap to the front.

Tactically, it wasn’t the perfect day, but physically I felt amazing. It was such a fun weekend. At first, in the team bus, our goal was to go for the podium, but given how the race was going, we decided to aim for the win—especially with the strong team we had.

Together with Pierre, we showed just how solid we were by taking the top two spots on the podium. The photo looks even better with both of us on it!”