With Arnaud Demare, Nacer Bouhanni, Tony Gallopin and Julian Alaphilippe, France had lots of cards to play in the Worlds road race. Bouhanni and Demare were both visible on the final climbs but ran out of power and instead it was Gallopin who was the best finisher in 7th.

"The guys did a good race," coach Bernard Borreau told ffc.fr. "We were hit by bad luck with crashes for Nacer Bouhanni, Julien Simon. Julian Alaphilippe had gastric problems and we have had "accidents" in this event, with all these crashes, Florian Vachon had mechanical problems, but I'm happy with the team, the guys have all done well.They did what they were asked to do. Now our opponents were simply stronger than us. Tony did a good attack on the penultimate lap, he used his shot too early. I do not know more as I have not talked to him yet.

"These two world championships had nothing in common. Here you had to be in position all the time. This cost a lot of energy. We had to fight, and this createed the big crashes. I also want to praise the courage of Nacer Bouhanni who remained in the race despite three crashes. He was there to fight on the last lap after two bike changes. This is proof that he was ready. Julian Alaphilippe devoted himself to the team and then Cyril Lemoine took over.

"Arnaud Demare was present on this course that looked like a Flemish race. Until the last lap he was in the fight. One must not forget that the riders got important experience. Sagan is a great rider who already has experience of the World Championships. He has had a superb season, it's a beautiful world champion. We must not forget that our team is still very young."

"The race was exhausting, with great change of pace. There were big attacks at times. It was very tactical," Demare said.

"I crashed once. It was in the feed area, a hyper dangerous place, every time at this place it was always the same. We'll have to do something to change that.

"The end of the race was decided by the legs. The strongest went away. It was my first world championships, and I got the experience. One can notice that Bernard Borreay made the right choice in selecting two sprinters and two puncheurs because we were sure with those categories. It's good for me personally because this race was 260 kilometers, it is a good experience. I learned a lot today."

"There is still a bit of disappointment," Gallopin said. "It was a nervous day, more than last year in Ponferrada (where he finished sixth, ed.), also because the course was like it was. The series of climbs and cobbles made ​​it tense and we were lucky not to have rain."