2014 Tro Bro Leon, 20th April (202.9 km)

[Dazed and Confused]

It was a very nice race, with a fair bit of movement, really more of a Flanders type of rac with the dirt roads playing the role of Cobbles. le Tro Bro Léon is, with les 4 jours de Dunkerque in early may, part of those very nice second rate races that have this flanders flavour but end up stuck in the calendar, facing the Ardennaises or the giro. Hard to find good slots for all those races.

Regarding Petit, to me he was never a sprinter, and it was a mistake to try to use him as such. He lacks a bit of explosion and the killer/psycho mentality a sprinter needs to have.

He is making the conversion into classicman/attacker. He has more of a Ladagnous profile : Good on cobbles, fast enough to win sprints in small groups of 10/15, but can't do better than top10 in bunch sprints. Still a solid young rider, who with this different focus could get a couple of victories per year and some good placings on WT classics.

Petit should work harder on time trailing (as in riding alone) to increase his chances in tougher races imo.

Perhaps Petit's lack of bunch sprint results boils down to the strength of the current sprinter group. Don't think I can recall a deeper and wider field of sprinters than what we have today.

 

[veji11]

Petit should work harder on time trailing (as in riding alone) to increase his chances in tougher races imo.

Perhaps Petit's lack of bunch sprint results boils down to the strength of the current sprinter group. Don't think I can recall a deeper and wider field of sprinters than what we have today.

Both are true. Petit said in a an interview after the race that he decided after another disappointing campaign of classics to change his approach, not wait anymore and go on the attack, take initiatives. he said that he never really was a sprinter when he was young, just started doing more of those from 2009/2010 in his U23 races, but he doesn't really like it, doesn't have the instinct.

I really think his 2nd place behind Demare in the U23 championship in 2011 gave everybody, including himself, the wrong idea as to what type of rider he was. One should also remember that that was the year right after the Kittels, Degenklob and other had gone pro so it was a weak U23 year in terms of sprinting.

As you said, to become a better classic-rider, he needs to work on his solo riding, ITT and regular. He still has a solid potential, just not as a bunch sprinter.