L’ÉCOLE BRITANNIQUE
“It is striking that five British riders have joined this quintessentially French team”
Midnight, and a blue, red and white Skoda pulls into the car park of a hotel in Besançon, eastern France. A teenager of medium height and slight build, with short mousy-brown hair emerges from the vehicle into the cold October night. Bleary-eyed and tired, he’s ready to hit the sack straight away after a five-hour drive. It has been a long day.
Earlier that day, while the sun was still up, he competed in sodden conditions at the Paris-Roubaix Juniors race. There he toiled in the mud to help his team-mate Max Poole finish sixth, before coming home outside the time-cut himself. Worn out, mud still under his fingernails, his season now finished, he endured the long transfer to his bed for the night.
Although young Finlay Pickering’s 2021 was ending in something of a damp squib he had celebrated good results in recent times, including a top 10 in the Junior TT World Championships.
The following day he will be met at the hotel by Groupama-FDJ
