Cycling: Cosnefroy and Coquard headliners in Choisy

The day after the arrival of the Tour de France won by the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, the 5th edition of Crito'Star in Choisy (Val-de-Marne) takes place this Monday (start at 7 p.m.).

In this particular year, it will be one of the only two criteriums to take place in France.

The proximity to the Tour de France allowed the organizers to attract several French riders who stood out during the Grande Boucle.

The two headliners will thus be Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R-la-Mondiale), wearing the polka dot jersey for 15 days and sprinter Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept), author of several Top 10. Kenny Elissonde (Trek- Segafredo), Clément Venturini, Mikaël Chérel (AG2R-la-Mondiale), Pierre Luc Périchon (Cofidis), Hugo Hofstetter (Israel Start-Up Nation), Jérôme Cousin, Geoffrey Soupe, Fabien Grellier (Total Direct Énergie) will also be present throughout like Nicolas Roche (Sunweb).

Winner of the 2019 edition, the Italian David Rebellin, still a professional at 49 in the Croatian Meridiana team, will also be at the start.

Froome was very close to coming!

But a huge foreign headliner was very close to running in the streets of Choisy: the Briton Christopher Froome, quadruple winner of the Tour de France.

“The two of us had very good contact,” reveals organizer Eric Ramos.

We had a good discussion and he agreed to participate.

But his team preferred that he be in training to prepare for the Vuelta.

But I do not despair of having him come next year or for the gala stars on track at the Vélodrome de Saint-Quentin.

"

The organizers also had to adapt to the health situation.

The arrival era was limited to a gauge of 1500 spectators.

“It will be compulsory masks with limited contact,” recognizes Eric Ramos.

On the Tour de France

, I could see that the measures were well applied.

On our small scale, we were inspired by it.

This year, it was necessarily more complicated to organize.

But it was important that our ordeal could still take place.

We hope it will be more festive next year, but the set is quality and it will still be spectacular.

"

The Crito'Star de Choisy is the only professional event to be run with Dernys (mopeds) which take the colors.

But this year, the Belgian and Dutch pilots did not want to come because of the health situation.

“They were afraid of not being able to return home so we will only have about ten French drivers,” explains Ramos, who is obliged, as a result, to adapt the format of the race.

"We will do two series then a final".

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A women's race, also behind Dernys, will take place before the pro race (16 hours), with the presence of several of the best French women such as Clara Copponi (Groupama-FDJ) or Roxane Fournier.