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GP FRANCOIS FABER
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92nd Grand-prix François FABER
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REPORT
GENIOUS GENIETS
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It was chilly out there in Bech on Sunday morning and the cold wind was about to dry up the roads that were still wet from the previous day's rain. Difficult conditions though for a bike race and the crosswinds as well as the selective course with lots of small climbs had already written the screenplay of the race in advance: a big selection as of the first lap and a victory for the strongest rider in the race: Kevin Geniets. The defending champion took off as of the first kilometres and, if he had Michel Ries by his side for most of the race, he left the rider from Alzingen no less than 2 minutes behind him in the last 9 kilometres.
As of the first lap, the peloton eventually broke into pieces after an acceleration of Frenchman Arnaud Laupin and a crash that put Pascal Triebel among others in difficulties. Pit Leyder and Michel Ries were the first to react after Laupin's attack but they soon got the company of the 2014 winner of the Grand-prix François Faber, Kevin Geniets. Laupin didn't last long in the lead and Pit Leyder also had to fold a little bit later, in the second lap. So they were two in the lead, Ries and Geniets, for a long rider at the front. Behind them, a first peloton was 45" late but was about to explode even more.
7 riders broke away from this group: Tiago Da Silva (Tetange), Pascal Triebel (Mondorf), Colin Heiderscheid from UC Dippach, Arnaud Laupin from VC Hettange, Pit Leyder from VC Diekirch as well as Dylan Guinet and Corentin Zannini, two members of the regional Lorraine Selection of the French Cycling Federation, who made the trip to Bech with five riders. A second group was chasing not far behind and contained Philipp Sunnen, Chris Johanns, Valentin Godeau, Luc Wirtgen, Gilles Rouling and Maxime Weyrich. Both groupes came together in the third lap, but with a distance of about one minute to the leaders Geniets and Riets.
During lap four, suspense rised again because Dylan Guinet put on a strong perfomance. The Frenchman broke away from the chasing group and closed the gap to the leaders within one lap. But as he had them in sight in the short last straight line in Bech and was about to catch them, Geniets and Ries managed to raise the speed and Guinet never birdget up, staying alone in between the two leaders and a chasing group with Chris Johanns, Tiago Da Silva and Pascal Triebel, who were still up there for one of the Top places. The main peloton, or what was over from it, was now more than 2 minutes behind.
Behind the duo Geniets-Ries, the lone Guinet and the trio Triebel-Johans-Da Silva, Frenchman Corentin Zannini had also attacked out of the peloton, with five riders on his back: Leyder, Weyrich, Sunnen, Godeau and Wirtgen. But their chances of coming back to the front were very low, because Kevin Geniets still had plenty of reserves: the rider from LP Schifflange attacked on the last lap, on the climb out of Bech, left Michel Ries behind him and flew away to victory. Kevin Geniets wins the 92nd edition of the Grand-prix François Faber in solo mode, nearly two minutes behind a Michel Ries who was about to be caught by Dylan Guinet, the Frenchman in third place, who on his side remained only narrowly ahead of Pascal Triebel. The evergreen attacked in the last lap out of his group and took fourth place in the race, as first master in the rankings.
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