Three in a row for Chavanel, Ferrand Prevot in French TT championships

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Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) and Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Rabo-Liv) claimed their third consecutive national time trial titles at the French road championships on Thursday. 

For Chavanel who stopped the clock at 57:54 for the 47.8km test, it was the sixth title of his career, won this time over FDJ's Anthony Roux by 17 seconds. Maxime Bouet (AG2R-La Mondiale) was third at 1:17.

Ferrand-Prevot won on the 23.9km course in 33:29 minutes, beating Audrey Cordon (Hitec Products) by two seconds, for a third time. Aude Biannic (Lointek Team) came in third 1:13 minutes behind the winner's time.

Time trial title number six for Chavanel

Sylvain Chavanel of IAM Cycling added another TT national title to those he'd already won in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2013, but this one had a special taste as it was acquired on home soil at the Futuroscope park where David Millar won the inaugural time trial of the 2000 Tour de France. Chavanel, who hails from the Poitou region, outclassed Anthony Roux of FDJ.fr and AG2R-La Mondiale's Maxime Bouet by 17 seconds and 1:17 respectively.

"I'm delighted," Chavanel said. "I may be in my 15th year as a professional, but this time, I really wanted to do well. I was all fired up when I woke up at 6:00 am. I didn't want to be over-confident. It was a strange feeling to race for the French title at home. I didn't have the impression of being at the national championship. Only when I saw the staging, the advertisements and so many people on the roadsides, I realized that I was really racing at home for something serious."

Chavanel didn't panic when a storm began as he was on his way while Roux got wet only after crossing the line and set an interesting time. But the favourite remained in the lead at all intermediate time checks with an advantage of 27 seconds at 13.8km and 37 seconds at 31.9km. As Roux finished strongly on the lumpy part of the course, the difference was only 17 seconds at the end, and Chavanel's average speed was 49.523km/h.

"Looking at the times in the last 15 kilometers, I've believed a little bit that I might be the winner," Roux said. "But had we had similar racing conditions, the gap would have been bigger at the end. Sylvain is definitely the number one time triallist in France."

"It's never nice to get a storm in a race," Chavanel said. "But I won't complain about that. The route wasn't very curvy so I didn't lose much time because of the rain. I didn't take any risk though. I almost stopped to take the curves."

Chavanel's confidence was boosted by his knowledge of preceding Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Jérémy Roy (FDJ.fr) after only five kilometers of racing. In his first year racing for IAM Cycling, he was coached by Eddy Seigneur, who was the record holder of French titles (four) for time trial before him. "The two of us, we have a nice record book in this race," Chavanel said. "It's great to be advised by someone who knows what he's talking about."

"I'm looking forward to see a big crowd here on Sunday," said Chavanel, who won the road race three years ago in Boulogne-sur-Mer in the north of France and finished second last year in Lannilis, Brittany. "I'll race with no pressure because there are top sprinters in France now [Arnaud Démare and Nacer Bouhanni for FDJ.fr, Bryan Coquard for Europcar, Adrien Petit for Cofidis], so I won't feel the responsibility of the race, but it might not be a bunch sprint finish, and I want to have more fun here at home."

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