A victory, at the French Nationals time trial in 2022 and a top-10 in a World Tour overall, in the Tour of Poland of the same year. This is the baggage as a professional of who now wears the Pink jersey of the Giro d’Italia, Bruno Armirail. The Frenchman (29 years old) leads a Grand Tour for the first time in his career, after long years of working in the shadows, as a gregarious in the Groupama FDJ, the team with which he made the leap to the first division professional towards the end of 2017.
Armirail experienced it with some suspense, since once he crossed the finish line he was left waiting in the mixed zone for the arrival of Geraint Thomas, who started as the leader in the fourteenth stage. The man from Bagnères-de-Bigorre, despite being 18:37 behind the Welshman overall, was able to get the pink by a margin of 1:41. “The plan this morning was more about the stage win. We talked to my teammate Rudy Molard. We thought that one day the pink jersey could be at stake, but we didn’t think it would be today. He had tried it on stage 4 and was disappointed that he didn’t have a good day. Only once Geraint Thomas crossed the finish line did it come true in my mind, but it’s hard to tell. It’s good for the team after Thibaut Pinot’s second place yesterday”, Armirail summed up.
Will this advantage help you in a stage as demanding as this Sunday’s? If he succeeds, he would leave a little more mark for his country in this race. And it is that since 24 years old, with Laurent Jalabert in 1999, a Frenchman did not wear the pink jersey in the Giro d’Italia. Major challenge.
