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Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux welcomes three trainees

Belgian rider Dries De Pooter, Dutch rider Stijn Daemen and French rider Maxime Jarnet join Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux as trainees until the end of the year.

Dries De Pooter won the Belgian junior national title in Koksijde last year, but he didn’t have many opportunities to show his jersey before passing to the U23 category with SEG Racing Academy. The habitant of Geel, member of Acrog-Tormans during all youth categories, is known as a big talent for the classics and one week stage races. The 18 year old, 24th at the Heistse Pijl last Saturday, acquired good results during his first year as an U23 with for example top 10 places on top of La Planche des Belles Filles at Tour Alsace or 4th and 6th at the Course de la Paix.

Stijn Daemen was also on form during this Course de la Paix. But his 2nd place at the first stage of the Oberösterreichrundfahrt is his best international result so far this season. The habitant of Landgraaf rode for Belgian teams from 2015 to 2019 before stepping up to Continental team Abloc CT. The 22 year old achieved his best results in the colors of this team. The student physiotherapy was crowned Dutch U23 champion on the VAM-berg before winning a team time trial with the national team at the Orlen Nations Grand Prix. The rider from Limburg already wore the tricolor as a junior in time trials. The allround rider likes hilly courses, is good in time trials and can be successful in a group sprint.

Maxime Jarnet is a pure sprinter. The last year U23 already took four victories and fifteen podium spots this season. But the 22 year old also collected several places of honor on an international level. He missed the victory at both stages of the Alpes Isère Tour and the Tour d’Eure-et-Loir. The member of Vélo Club Villefranche Beaujolais also took 3rd place of the final classification of the Tour d’Eure-et-Loir. Another remarkable performance is his 7th place at Paris-Tours for U23, after a period as a trainee with Pro Continental Team Arkea Samsic. At this end of the season, he will again race on a professional level, just like Dries De Pooter and Stijn Daemen.

It’s very special to receive the opportunity to become a trainee in a World Team as a first year U23. I’m very ambitious, but this exceeds my expectations. I’ll get to know the team, I want to learn a lot and I hope that this period will make me stronger. I know the programme of Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux and I’m confident that both teams and my coach will select a good programme for me. Hopefully, this plan will bring me to my first world championships! I realize that choosing the U23 world championships as main goal is setting the bar high for an 18 year old and I’m honored to receive the help of Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux to achieve this. I hope this is a step towards my ultimate dream… becoming a world champion in the pro ranks!

I’m very happy to receive the opportunity to show myself in a World Tour jersey. I always felt good in Belgian teams, so I want to grab this chance with Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux with both hands! The wider public got to know me better thanks to my national title, won after the lockdown. I took advantage of this difficult period without races to elevate my training volume and reach the next step in my development. It’s a pity that my jersey couldn’t shine more often because of the pandemic, but I’m very happy that a World Team offered me to become a trainee. I already participated in some professional races like the Tour of Turkey, but I guess I’ll learn a lot with Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux and I’ll have a specific role at the start of each race. For me, this period as a trainee is another step towards my dream of becoming a professional rider. I’m really motivated to offer my services to Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux starting from the GP Jef Scherens! 

This opportunity as a trainee makes me happy, especially because it is in a foreign team. This means that people follow my performances! My 3rd place at the Tour d’Eure-et-Loir was probably important in the process as it was a professional race. This is the performance which I’m most proud of, even though I’ve won several U23 and amateur races. I already studied the races on my programme with Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux and they suit me really well, so I think I can play a role for the team. That’s why I want to be at 100% and help the team to the best possible result. I hope to integrate myself well in the team and to learn from the different cultures. I want to thank Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux for the opportunity and I hope to meet the expectations!

We were looking for three trainees who already performed on an international level. Dries De Pooter is a young talent, contrary to Stijn Daemen and Maxime Jarnet who already reached a more mature age. The Belgian national junior champion has already a nice palmares at the age of eighteen. We’ve been following him for some time now and the performance impressing me most, is his 10th place on top of La Planche des Belles Filles at the Tour Alsace. That’s an incredible performance knowing that he’s only eighteen and more of a classic type of rider. We’re convinced that a nice future is awaiting him, so it was important for us to offer him this trainee spot. The U23 World Championships are his main goal of the season and we want to help him prepare for the event by offering him an adapted race schedule. De Pooter and Daemen already met several times, as the Dutch rider likes to race in Belgium. Daemen made a good impression, especially by winning the national U23 title. We established a nice race schedule for him and I’m convinced that his allround capacities will be an added value for our team. Just like the two previous riders, we want to follow Maxime Jarnet from nearby. He races on a high level for several years now and is also France’s number one in the amateur ranks. At the beginning of the season, he’s shown nice performances and we’re convinced that he will continue doing this in our colors. We offered him a programme with many French races. We’re impatient to discover the development of this trio! 

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