Friday evening, Manu Guérinel won the Mainvilliers criterium. At the end of the 65 terminals (26 laps of 2.5 km), the member of VC Étampes got everyone to agree by winning the peloton sprint. In a very authoritarian way for an 18-year-old, who, moreover, only started cycling in 2020. “Yes, it’s my third season but really my first since with the covid, we don’t couldn’t ride… ” During the two years of the pandemic, amateur runners, in fact, could not run.
The winner Manu Guérinel (VC Etampes).
Already five victories for his first season
Before getting on a racing bike, Manu Guérinel practiced speed skating. Since the age of 4. “At the infrastructure level, it was a bit complicated. My roller club being in Longjumeau, it took me 45 minutes, sometimes 1 hour to join the club, so to train, I did a bit of cycling, “says Manu, who lives near La Ferté-Alais, before to resume: “One day, at the start of the pandemic, with my brothers, we said to ourselves: “Shall we go cycling?”. It started like that, I took a license at Étampes, and there, it’s really my first real season. »
Hugo Page, the pro runner from Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert, came as a spectator.
And Manu Guérinel quickly learned race tactics. Last fall, he closed the small year 2021 with two victories, at home in Étampes and Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine). This year, the young Etampois continued to make a place for himself in the Ile-de-France peloton by winning at Rungis (Val-de-Marne) and the Tour des Yvelines, which allowed him to move up to the 2nd category. And before winning in Mainvilliers, this very full head – he is in the 1st year of preparatory engineering school at Polytechnique at La Sorbonne – had just raised his arms in Gif-sur-Yvette (Essonne).
“Cycling is fun”
With already five successes in 2022, one wonders why the Essonnian did not come to cycling earlier. “Cycling, oh yes, I like it, it’s a great sport! exclaimed the kid on Friday as if he had just discovered Ali Baba’s cave. “In fact, rollerblading has long been my passion and for a long time I had a priori on cycling, with regard to doping… Since then, things have improved and, for me, cycling remains fun”, confessed the one who could pass for an insolent, vis-à-vis those who have struggled for years to win a simple podium.
Former professional rider Emmanuel Magnien, bottle holder for his son Lorenzo, who finished 3rd in the Mainvilliers criterium.
Classification
Mainvilliers (Saint-Hilaire Prize).1. Manu Guerinel (VC Etampes); 2. Vincent Mouquet (US Cosnoise); 3. Lorenzo Magnien (Parisis AC 95); 4. Raphaël Hector (UC Tilly Val de Seulles, 1st junior); 5. Alexis Hoffmann (PAC 95); 6. Pierre-Yves Quéré (VCA of Le Bourget); 7. Gregoire Morel (Team Progress); 8. Antoine Chopinaud (CRC Limoges); 9. Jeremy Nieto (T. Progress); 10. Antonin Maury (ES Auneau)…
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Jean-André Provost
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