Published July 18, 2021 04:06PM
Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels p/b KTM) has been voted the ‘most aggressive rider’ at the 2021 Tour de France. After a busy three weeks, the Frenchman will end his very first Grand Tour with a trip to the podium where he will collect the Combativity Award in front of the Arc de Triomphe.
The 26-year-old came out on top of a shortlist that included stage winners Julian Alaphilippe, Wout van Aert, Matej Mohorič and Nils Politt, winning the public vote – which counts for one jury selection – by an overwhelming majority.
“If I had been told before the Tour that I would be on the Champs-Élysées podium, I would not have believed it,” Bonnamour said after the result was announced on Saturday. “I came to the Tour to discover, to do beautiful things, I put my heart into the work, and here I am rewarded. I spent three very intense weeks, having a lot of fun in Brittany, at home, then wherever I could I went on the attack.”
Since the start of the Tour in his home region of Brittany, Bonnamour has spent around 900 km at the front of the race on all sorts of terrains. Five of the six breakaways he was part of went on to contest the stage, and in four of them he raced to a brilliant top-10 finish, including sixth on the Tour’s longest stage to Le Creusot and fifth on the stage 9 summit finish to Tignes.
He’s yet to take a professional victory, but the 2021 Tour de France has shown everyone, not least himself, what sort of rider he can be.
“I have taken a step forward and I now know at what level I can evolve. I didn’t think I was capable of staying in contact with the riders I encountered at the end of certain stages. Today, it is no longer a surprise for me to find myself at their side. I still hope to improve and win a good race one day.”