SECRET WEAPON

Benoît Cosnefroy may be French cycling’s best kept secret. He is a talented young French rider, on a French team, most of whose racing has so far taken place within the borders of his home country, and who has yet to win a race abroad.

It’s not a bad time to be a young, up-and-coming French rider. The home media attention and fandom are spread equally and lavishly between Julian Alaphilippe, Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet, with buffers in the form of Arnaud Démare, Nacer Bouhanni and Warren Barguil. Unlike these riders, who in their time as new professionals filled a long-standing void in successful French riders and had to do their growing up in the full glare of the media spotlight, Cosnefroy has been able to do his developing quietly, without all the attendant pressure. (It’s also not a bad time to be a young, up-and-coming French rider on the Ag2r La Mondiale team - Bardet and Pierre Latour are off next year, leaving a vacancy for a home hero on the squad for 2021 and beyond.) Cosnefroy’s quiet development has resulted in nine wins already, in three years.