Enjoying his best season since he turned his full attention to road racing, Jean-Christophe Peraud suffered a painful crash at the Classic de I’Indre last Sunday –  second event he participated in following highly successful runner-up finish at the Tour de France. Despite multiple scratches and bruises, the Ag2r La Mondiale rider aims to follow his racing schedule without any changes, hoping to get properly prepared for the upcoming individual time trial at World Championships.

Peraud crashed inside last 30 kilometers of the Classic de l’Indre held last Sunday and abandoned the race, but still intended to participate in the Tour Poitou-Charentes, kicking off today. While the 37-year old Frenchman didn’t expect himself to feel good enough in the opening stages, he seemed to be motivated to survive until the individual time trial, held on the fourth day of competition.

“I’m sore and I have multiple superficial wounds. Very likely next two days are going to be difficult for me,” Peraud told Cyclism’Actu.

“I will have to survive until the time trial, what might be difficult. I’m going to work on myself, try to find a racing rhythm and use TPC in order to ride more efficiently in races I personally target.”

Individual time trial at the World Championships is certainly one of Peraud’s biggest goals for the remaining of 2014 season, but the 37-year old Frenchman acknowledged that making it into top fight might be impossible for him and thus modestly targets a spot within ten best riders.

“I’d like to compete and, why not, to make it into the top ten. Top five seems to be impossible. I’ve seen the course on the video and the second part of the chrono suits me well,” Peraud concluded.