Editorial

It’s a unique three-act production with a specific concept and perfect balance, leaving very little latitude to fate. Indeed, every year at the approach of the spring season, the Critérium International triptych race is won by a top performing rider. Hence did Bobby Julich triumph last year, having also won Paris-Nice just prior to the Criterium, a double win no-one had managed to achieve since Laurent Jalabert’s capital season ten years ago.

Each of the three stages of the race has its own particular features: the first stage, run in the plains on the Saturday, is as a rule devoted to sprinters and will this time take the pack from Sedan to Charleville-Mézières. This stage is followed by the hill race on the Sunday morning, which makes more use of the Ardennes landscapes. It will be even more varied this year with the introduction of a new difficulty, the Roc la Tour, a climb of more than three kilometres with passages at a 10% incline. The climax of the race is the traditional and decisive time-trial, in the superb setting of the Place Ducale, to determine the winning riders to the nearest second.

In Charleville-Mézières, elected the most sporting town in France two years ago, amid the testing and varied landscapes of the Ardennes region, the Critérium International has found its ideal location. This has been its home for the last five years. It has already renewed its lease once. Will it be three in a row?

Christian PRUDHOMME

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