Boucles de Seine-et-Marne 2025
Last weekend the junior team travelled to France for their first big overseas race of the season, Boucles de Seine et Marne souvenir Bernard MAILLET. A 110km road race with 1150m climbing, 5 KOM and 1 Sprint.
Saturday the boys set out to familiarise themselves with key parts of the course, notably the climbs and finishing circuit, which could prove decisive in the race.
Sunday was an early, chilly start with temperatures around 3 degrees, but fortunately the wind had eased overnight. With prep and the team presentations done it was showtime as the race rolled out of Coulommiers bang on 9am! The boys were switched on right from the start, keeping up near the front prepared to respond to any splits on the long open stretches where, had it been windy, the race could have broken up. As the race approached the first of the big climbs, la Côte de Gibraltar (2.1km at 5.1%), the boys hit the front with Ben and Oscar setting a strong pace up the climb to put pressure on and limit any moves. As the race started to fragment the whole team stuck together with: Rocco, Noah, Matthew, Oscar and Ben all comfortably in the front group.
Everything was going well until Ben got caught up in a big crash on one of the fast bends, in which his bars were snapped and the front wheel valve ripped off! Remarkably, although a bit battered and bruised, he managed to get a bike from the Shimano neutral service car and was able to continue the rest of the race; albeit now distanced from the main bunch.
Up the front things started to hot up as we hit the loop containing two more big climbs: la Côte de La Chenée (2.1km at 4.4%) and la Côte de Launoy Brûlé (1.1km at 8.2%), which the race would visit twice each. Oscar put in a big effort up la Côte de La Chenée the second time up which ripped the race apart causing big splits to develop. By the time they crested la Côte de Launoy Brûlé a small group, including Oscar, Rocco and Matthew, had managed to get back together at the front as they headed towards the 10km finishing circuit in La Ferté-Gaucher.
On the finishing circuit through the town the pace was high and a small group managed to get away on the final lap to contest the win. Matthew and Oscar contested the sprint for minor places in the chasing group with Rocco just behind. Noah was a bit further back followed by Ben.
We’re really proud of how the boys rode. They were fully focussed and committed to the race, which had a big impact on how it played out.
01 Bouteloup Alexis Team Avesnois Junior
02 Lebeau Pierre Orléans Loiret Cyclisme Junior
03 Waterlot Achille Linas-Montlhéry Cycling Team
15 Fletcher Matthew trainSharp Development team
23 Nisbett Oscar trainSharp Development team
37 Schumacher Rocco trainSharp Development team
82 Wheller Noah trainSharp Development team
94 Tamplin Ben trainSharp Development team
Massive thanks to www.jsfertegaucher-cyclisme.fr for giving our young riders the opportunity to ride in such a fabulously well organised and safe race for everyone with closed roads and plenty of marshals and support. Also thanks to our sponsors trainSharp, ROMAN, Sykes Harley Davidson, SRM and Secret Training for their continued support.
