With the French Jordan Jegat at the gates of the Top 10, Totalenergies takes place to play the general classification

For his second round of France, the tricolor runner manages to follow the cadors in the mountains and could offer his team his best result for ten years.

“We don't necessarily have a pure team member or a pure leader, we are only runners who are going to play the steps”said Jordan Jegat at the Grand Départ du Tour de France in Lille. Ironically, the Breton of the total team is found at the gates of the top 10 with four stages of the end of the big loop, eleventh at less than 2,30 “of the tenth place occupied by Carlos Rodriguez (ineos grenadiers), at the dawn of the 18th stage leading to the Col de la Loze, Thursday, July 24. General classification.

28th for his first Tour de France in 2024, Jordan Jegat had already hinted interesting qualities as a teammate of Steff Cras, who could give him hope of doing better this year. But from there to fight for the top 10? “My goal was to aim for a stage victory, but I had told the team that I always wanted to try to keep in touch with the best, to aim for the top 20, the top 15 at best. But 11th, I did not expect it”, He confided at the start of the third week of the Tour de France, after being elected more combative of the second. Eleventh of the stage concluded in Mûr-de-Bretagne, thirteenth of that finished in Luchon-Superbagnères, eighth in Carcassonne, it remains among the best.

“To say that it would be at the doors of the top 10 in the last week, it was the most optimistic scenario, that we did not refrain, but it is still a beautiful revelation”, rejoices its sports director Benoît Génauzeau, whose team is invited to this Tour de France. With this unexpected classification, the initial objective of training therefore evolves. “At the start, the general classification was a common thread, because we cannot limit our racing movements for a fifteenth place, which was ambitious and realistic. But here we are a little closer so we will try to consolidate or even improve its classification”he continues.

“It channels us a littlerecognizes Anthony Turgis, teammate of Jordan Jegat. Rather than doing crazy dogs a little, going to everything that moves, to hope for stage victories, we focus a little more on him, we count our pedal strokes to take him to good arrangements. We push us a little further. We are not used to do it here, but we do it on other races, so why not on the Tour?“

For his part, Jordan Jegat, always modest and a little reserved, learned his role as a leader, he who still worked at the factory in 2020, in Aucy (preserves), at the STER (cakes) and the fishmonger of the supermarket, since the Covid had put his dream career in parentheses while he was evolving in N1, the best amateur level. “There have been a lot of falls, illness, it eliminates many runners and I would not have been 11th without these vagaries”he says today, as if he did not yet have completely self-confidence.

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However, the 26 -year -old Breton, in late maturation than other runners, says he has won in confidence in his first Tour de France, a year ago. “Last year, everyone told me that I was going to shit, that it was a washing machine, and suddenly I was running very badly, I attacked all the time, I just wanted to be in the escapes and go on TV. Then in the third week, I became aware of my level, that I could play with very good runners. From there, I was preparing for the next roundhe said on the bicycle club set in Superbagnères.

Much more constant this year, he always stays in the blow, in the group of favorites, and goes up at his own pace without ever being dropped. With the sights of the best result of his team since the 2015 Tour, the last time the Vendée team had finished in the Top 10 with Pierre Rolland (10th), under the name of Europcar.