This Sunday, the river Oise is the background decor of the 71st edition of the Classique Paris-Chauny (1.1, 25/09),which welcomes World Teams since 2018. 205 kilometer between Margny-les-Compiègne and Chauny with eight categorized climbs are on the menu. The last difficulty, Côte de Guivry, precedes three local laps of 9.5 kilometer in Chauny, where the riders often sprint for the victory. That’s how Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert came veery close to the victory in 2018 and 2020 with Dion Smith (2nd) and Danny Van Poppel (3rd) respectively.
In order to play a major role in a group sprint, the line up under the direction of Jean-Marc Rossignon can rely on the Italian duo Andrea Pasqualon and Riccardo Minali. The 4th place of first named rider in Eschborn Frankfurt last week is a proof of his excellent condition. Other fast assets are German rider Jonas Koch and Dutchman Wesley Kreder, who contributed to the strong collective performances of the sprint train on Belgian soil the last couple of weeks. Those four riders will race alongside Loïc Vliegen, winner of the Tour du Doubs in 2020, Théo Delacroix who already races for the 21st time on home soil this season and super helper Kévin Van Melsen.
« My top 5 in Frankfurt confirmed my good feeling in the approach of the race. Also this Sunday the parcours is hilly in the middle part, before a flat final. It might not be a World Tour race, but when analyzing the parcours and the participants with Riccardo, we saw that many top sprinters will line up tomorrow. Hopefully some teams will join us in making the race hard on the climbs or on the technical final circuit. These circumstances would be in our favor! »
Line up:
Théo Delacroix
Jonas Koch
Wesley Kreder
Riccardo Minali
Andrea Pasqualon
Kévin van Melsen
Loïc Vliegen
Sports Direction:
Jean-Marc Rossignon
