Last Friday, Julien Simon (Cofidis, solutions crédits) received his prize as winner of the Coupe de France PMU 2014. That's how - after 2012 with Samuel Dumoulin, who also won it in 2013 for the AG2R La Mondiale team - this prize came back to the Cofidis team.
During the prize award ceremony organised by the Ligue Nationale de Cyclisme at the Hippodrome of Vincennes (in collaboration with PMU of course), velowire.com realised some videos, of the speeches but also with interviews of Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) and Julien Simon, respectively number 2 and 1 of the individual classification of the Coupe de France PMU 2014. You can find these videos in the article below!
Marc Madiot: "I hope we'll be even more in the future"
As usual, the introduction of the award ceremony was done by Marc Madiot, not in his role as the manager of the FDJ.fr team of course but in his role as the President of the Ligue Nationale de Cyclisme.
As usual as well, and in line with his interview in the French sports newspaper L'Equipe the same day, Madiot mainly insisted on the quality of French cycling and the importance it has in the world ... At the prize award ceremony of the Coupe de France PMU 2014, the president of the Ligue indicated he hopes to see the Coupe de France grow instead of seeing races disappear* ...
The prize award ceremony of the Coupe de France PMU 2014
After this speech it was time for the prize award ceremony of the Coupe de France PMU 2014 with:
Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) as the best young rider, with 6 points more than Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale)
l'équipe Bretagne-Séché Environnement as the best team with 16 points more than AG2R La Mondiale
and the following top 5 for the individual classification of the Coupe de France PMU 2014:
1/ Julien Simon (Cofidis, solutions crédits) - 194 points
2/ Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) - 121 points
3/ Yauheni Hutarovich (AG2R La Mondiale) - 118 points
4/ Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) - 106 points
5/ Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale) - 100 points
The prize award ceremony itself is always done rather quickly and more seems to be an obligation than anything else, because in a very short timeframe, all cyclists have to come pick up their award and strike a pose for the photos, so the video of the ceremony is not really interesting. Therefore, instead of the video, I'd like you to discover the photos of the ceremony!
Interview with Julien Simon, winner of the Coupe de France PMU 2014
After the prize award ceremony, I seized the occasion to interview Julien Simon (Cofidis, solutions crédits), winner of the Coupe de France PMU for the first time in his career. You can discover his view on the Coupe de France in the video below and he also briefly discusses his off-season programme!
Interview with Samuel Dumoulin, 2nd in the general classificaiton of the Coupe de France PMU 2014
After having won the Coupe de France PMU twice in a row, Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) stranded at the 2nd place behind Julien Simon this year. While Simon took the first place in this classification first after the Route Adélie de Vitré (on 4 April 2014) and then, without losing it anymore, after the Tour du Finistère two weeks later, Samuel Dumoulin has never been far from Simon who was really sure to win this classification only after the Grand Prix d'Isbergues.
Dumoulin, always available for an interesting interview talks about the Coupe de France PMU 2014 seen by the number 2, who won it in 2012 and 2013:
Arnaud Démare versus a horse!
In addition to the usual sulkys race, with riders and former riders, this year also saw a battle "horse against bike" with Arnaud Démare (FDJ.fr), the current French Champion, on one side and Pierre Vercruysse on the other side. You can discover Démare's victory in LeTrotTV's video below:
The interview of Armindo Fonseca by Daniel Mangeas
Before that, Daniel Mangeas - who animated the award ceremony - interviewed Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), who went on to win the sulkys race. Since I didn't get the chance to interview him myself, I also share this interview here:
The races of the Coupe de France PMU 2015
* Marc Madiot indicated he hoped to see the number of races of the Coupe de France grow. This is not really the case in 2015 since two races disappear from the calendar of the Coupe de France PMU - the Grand Prix de la Somme "Conseil Général 80" who left this calendar while still being organised, and the Châteauroux Classic de l'Indre – Trophée Fenioux which won't be organised anymore.