Coppel/Sicard

specialgueststar
specialgueststar Posts: 3,418
edited July 2016 in Pro race
I had these two down as real upcoming talent (and reflected in an article at the time - Bientôt un crack Française? (Soon a French champ?) ) Sicard was u 23 rr champion and won the Avenir that year (2009). They both did well at the Dauphin 2010 and Coppel went onto 13th in the Tour in 2011. Both look comfortable in the high mountains and Coppel is a good against the clock. Coming out the pharma era I thought they could only get better - however both seemed to have settled down into some level of mediocrity??

http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/03/news/jerome-coppel-taking-spotlight-in-stride_165964

Comments

  • Crampeur
    Crampeur Posts: 1,065
    It seems to be a perennial problem for a lots of U23s. The perform fantastically at that level, then it all goes downhill when they reach WT. It would be interesting to see why....lack of motivation? Better competition?
  • Sicard was very active and looking perky in the Etoile de Besseges 4th stage for Europcar. Hopefully he finds himself as he has definitely disappointed.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... HcXRjvOGyY
    Contador is the Greatest
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,137
    Sicard seemed to have some issues with alcohol - maybe it's behind him now or maybe it was just a one-off. He's also been injured.

    Coppel seems to be a classic case of a French rider getting some good results and then slipping into a comfortable no pressure career (what Wiggins described as 'doing two years at each of the teams and then retiring') - a product of the French cycling being overindulged by the ASO.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • knedlicky
    knedlicky Posts: 3,097
    Sicard seems to have regularly had some sort of leg problems (and, despite RichN95’s above comment, I don’t mean ‘legless’ in its colloquial sense!)

    Coppel seems to lack that bit of drive and confidence – one of the reasons he left Saur-Sojasun and went to Cofidis was that he felt uncomfortable being the sole team leader at S-S.

    He might have done better in the Tour last year, however, had he not crashed on the first stage, and then took 2 weeks to recover (and it wasn’t the first time he’s crashed early on in a stage race, limiting how he does thereafter, either)
  • Sicard and Coppel having a good season - at last :)
  • 10eea6v.jpg
  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,604
    Still stuck at 30,000 eh?
  • The_Boy
    The_Boy Posts: 3,099
    Surprised Coppel hasn't been picked up by fdj. French, decent TT and had spoken for some time of wanting to ride as support for a team leader.
    Team My Man 2018: David gaudu, Pierre Latour, Romain Bardet, Thibaut pinot, Alexandre Geniez, Florian Senechal, Warren Barguil, Benoit Cosnefroy
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    Sicard is responsible for one of my fave ever Frenchie moments on the forum. I think it was prologue of Paris-Nice, and he let out a mighty "SIIIICCCCCCARD" when he started. 10 minutes later he'd had an absolutely howler of a ride.
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.