Cycling News

18 June 2008

It’s a race that his team takes extremely seriously each year due to the fact that they both share the same title sponsor: Crédit Agricole. “We had such a strong showing and our bosses at both the bank and the cycling team congratulated us on such a good performance”, was Simon’s conclusion on June 15 in Grenoble. “My first Dauphiné was a real good one. Firstly, I was hoping to get a better result for myself but I was probably under prepared at the start. My form got better at the end and that’s how I managed to come 12th in the last stage”.
 
Stage 7 into the capital of the French Alps, Grenoble, was a very mountainous one with the famous trilogy of the Charteuse: Col du Granier, Col du Cucheron, and Col de Porte, all extremely difficult climbs. Simon finished with the big guns and Tour de France favourites Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans. The winner of the day was Simon’s team-mate Dimitri Fofonov. “It was good to see him get a win after working for the others for so long”, said Simon of his Kazakh team-mate whose last personal victory was back in 2002 when he claimed stage 7 of the Tour of Catalunya. “I did a lot of team work during this Dauphiné”, Simon continued. “In the first couple of days, it was for Thor (Hushovd) who had the yellow jersey after coming 3rd in the prologue and 2nd in stage 1. In the mountains, we were represented in all breakaways, everything was covered.”
 
Crédit Agricole had the revelation of the race with 21 year old Frenchman Pierre Rolland who claimed the king of the mountains at the end of the 8 day event. “I think I have come out of the Dauphiné really well” Simon mentioned prior to departing for his next mountainous race: the Route du Sud on the Pyrénées side of France. “I’m going to Sud to confirm my place in the Tour team and I am confident in how I’m feeling. After that, when all my team-mates will go to their respective country for their national championship, I’ll keep training at home with my mind set on selection for the Tour.”

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