For his fifth season at Cofidis, Adrien Petit will have new goals. After a few years as a main sprinter in the team, the winner of the 2014 Tro Bro Leon will now turn his attention to lead-out duties.
When it became clear that Cofidis had signed star sprinter Nacer Bouhanni from FDJ, it became apparent that Adrien Petit was set for a new role. Having been classified both as a sprinter and an attacker, he will now become an important part of the lead-out train of the 2012 French champion. After some early-season training with his team in Calpe, Petit is eager to hit the road again, especially after a disappointng 2014 season.
"For me, the season was lacklustre," he told VeloRacingNews.fr. "I didn't achieve the results that I had expected. I asked myself many questions, seeing that I was not at my level, and thus lost a lot of confidence. My victory at the Tro Bro Leon came at the right moment. It was very good for morale at the end of my classics season. I feel really good in the Cofidis team. It is my 5th season so now I know the staff by heart. I get along with them.
"Seeing that I was struggling to win races and especially in sprints, I changed my approach for the finales a bit. I attack a lot more and have had a lot of fun doing that. However, for the 2015 season I will be a lot with Nacer Bouhanni so there will be no room to attack before the sprint. I think it'll be a great personal experience and I hope that this role will allow me to take off some of the pressure which means that I can arrive at the races where I have my own card(Het Nieuwsblad, Waregem, Flanders, Roubaix) at 100%.
In recent years, Cofidis has had a hard time winning races but that is expected to change with Bouhanni.
"The arrival of Nacer is really good for the team and it will bring the whole group forward," Petit said. "Everyone will have a clear role which will give us new motivation. We will all take a step up and make our presence in the pro peloton felt.
"We have to find our automatisms with Nacer. We will start to do so at the training camp in January and in the last two races in Mallorca. Then we will go directly to Qatar and Oman in order to get some success from our good momentum. But we will only be at 85% of our capabilities and the real goald will come later.
"In 2015 my goals are to fully take pleasure from my new role and lead our leader to many victories but I also have so personal targets."
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