A recovery that the rider with two participations in the Tour de France (2017, 2018) approaches with the serenity of one who has experienced a cloudless winter. At the very beginning of January, the former omnium world champion (in 2014 in Cali) was full of medals at the French track championships: gold in individual elimination, gold in duet with Valentin Tabellion on the American and gold again on the team pursuit with GO-Sport-Roubaix Lille Métropole. A raid completed by two silver medals in the points race and the omnium. “This good streak on the track does not bode well for what I will do on the road, but it is good for morale and for confidence”, he summarizes, convinced that “the wheel will finally turn”.
Are the hassles over?
Because for two seasons, nothing has really happened as he would have liked. “In 2021, I was fairly quickly put aside by my team, Arkea-Samsic, before suffering a concussion. Then last season, I had covid in February, which hampered my start to the season, before breaking my collarbone on the Tour Poitou-Charentes in August. And inevitably, these two difficult seasons, certainly dotted with a few places of honor, took him away from victory and a possible return to a leading team.
make the cash register
But Boudat found at Go Sport – Roubaix Lille Métropole (1) a team focused on the track, which allows him to maintain a dense program on the track in view of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, THE big objective of the Girondin. Thus, after the Marseillaise on Sunday, then the Etoile de Bessèges next week, he will turn to the track world cup rounds in Jakarta at the end of February, then in Cairo in mid-March. Opportunities to confirm his status in the France team, even if Boudat knows it: the road remains an essential terrain to build a solid “box” for endurance events on the track.
“Ideally, I would have needed to take part in a big three-week tour this year, then another next year, to prepare for the Olympic Games”, summarizes the runner, well aware that GO Sport – Roubaix, who only plays in the third division, will not be able to offer her such a program, since she is not invited to these events. Boudat will therefore have to concentrate on the chances that will be given to him on the road races of the Coupe de France or the French stage races. A context where, by shining, he could make his return to the landscape of leading road-sprinters…
(1) the GO-Sport Roubaix Lille Métropole team is in uncertainty following the liquidation of its title sponsor, the sports equipment manufacturer
