New distance record and victory for the Roadborn Team

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This 10th edition of the Pearl Izumi 24 Hours Cycling of Le Mans took place under a mild weather, despite a cool night and a strong wind on Sunday morning. Ideal conditions to allow cyclists and visitors to enjoy festivities planned this weekend on the Bugatti circuit. Shortly before the “Le Mans Type” start given by Roger Legeay, the “family picture” has gathered more than 2000 riders on the track for the pre-race briefing.
For the victory in overall ranking, the Roadborn Team (Julien Guay, Jordan Levasseur, Thibault Ferasse and Tony Hurel) finally won after a fierce battle with the formations Socopa Viande 1 (Dany Maffeïs, Romain Bacon, Kevin Lalouette, Remy Gras, Cyril Saillard and Alexandre Delettre) and Ekoï Cycling Nutrition (Sylvain Georges, Pierre Almeida, Theo Vimpere, Maxime Roger, Damien Vuillier and Thomas Chassagne).
The young and local boss, Simon Barbier, could not dream of a better result for his small company specialized in the artisanal assembly of carbon wheels to get known. Icing on the cake, the team improves the previous record of one lap, 637.11mi traveled (245 laps).
Used to seeing teams of six riders win since 2015, we did not bet on the four friends. “The management of sleep has been complicated, because relays at 4 came back very quickly! I was knackered when I left for my last relay, but sensations were finally good”, said Tony Hurel.
The podium gradually appeared in the early morning, before seeing the end-of-race strategies to be set up. With the flat tyre of Thibault Ferasse, a last risky change of rider for Socopa that will prevent Dany Maffeïs from competing in the final sprint, or Sylvain Georges’cramps in the last lap synonym of the 4th place … the suspense remained until the last laps. Distinxion Alençon finished 3rd!

In the « single » riders category, Freddy Drouet won with 212 laps (551mi and 124th overall) and the english woman Gina Cleere made the difference again with 124 laps (322km and 479th overall). Bike Paradise Women’s Community, the first 100% women formation, ranked 235th overall with 510mi (196 laps).

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