Yesterday we started our dive into the top performers of the men’s French Grand Prix in 2023. In this article, we will tackle part 2.
Among the factors that weigh upon an athlete’s relative importance within a team are how often they race, their best results and even if they won a medal. Furthermore, if an athlete’s strong performance coincides with a particularly good round for their team, that could also be of significance.
While no individual athlete can carry an entire team alone, they can nonetheless have a major impact.
Poissy Triathlon – 2nd
Poissy came close to taking the overall title, missing out by a mere 4 points in the end, and their season was built on a collective effort. With several athletes making a big contribution, it is hard to say with any real certainty who the top performer was.
Aurelien Raphael’s 8th place in the season opener kept the team alive in difficult circumstances. He would also add a 16th place later in the campaign. Jawad Abdelmoula chipped in with finishes of 4th and 5th in his two appearances while Tom Richard placed 8th, 7th and 7th in his three showings.
Overall, though, the top performer was Dorian Coninx. Whereas Raphael, Richard and Abdelmoula were each Poissy’s top finisher once, Coninx managed to do so twice. He finished 9th in Bordeaux, one place behind Richard. Thereafter he took 3rd place in Metz and 1st place in Saint-Jean-des-Monts.
In the two races that Coninx made it onto the podium (and was the team’s top finisher), Poissy won the round. He was therefore a high-impact athlete and the top performer.
Les Sables Vendée Triathlon – 4th
Les Sables Vendée had several highly important athletes in their 2023 campaign. Foremost among them was Jeremy Quindos.
The Frenchman was a rarity insofar that he brought home five valuable scores to the team. He opened his campaign by taking 5th place before finishing 7th in Bordeaux and 11th in Metz. A 34th place in Quiberon followed before he wrapped up his year with a 17th place finish.
Kenji Nener also added a 5th place in Metz while Pierre Le Corre was outstanding, finishing 2nd in Fréjus, 4th in Bordeaux and 10th in Quiberon, despite a T2 error.
Quindos, though, was the piece of the puzzle that brought everything together for Les Sables Vendée.
Valence Triathlon – 6th
It is a challenge to identify Valence’s top performer since they had a number of exceptional one-off displays and a dearth of contributions of three races or more.
Alex Yee and Csongor Lehmann each won a silver medal in their sole appearance for the team while Jacob Birtwhistle likewise contributed a bronze medal with a classy performance.
In addition, a 6th place from Ricardo Batista and a 9th place from both Jack Willis and Callum McClusky gave Valence three more men with top-10 finishes. Again, though, they were the only scores from Batista, Willis and McClusky.
Only two men scored twice for Valence. One of the individuals in question was Joao Nuno Batista, the World Junior champion. Batista the Younger finished 32nd and 22nd in his two appearances. The other man with two scores was Hugo Milner, the recent winner of the Miyazaki World Cup, who finished 18th and 15th.
Seeing as there was not a lot to separate Yee, Lehmann and Birtwhistle, the top performer may have actually been from a non-podium finisher. Indeed, as the only man with multiple top-20 finishes, Valence’s top performer might just have been Milner.
Triathlon Toulouse Métropole – 8th
Nathan Lessmann brought home Toulouse’s top performance with an 11th place in Fréjus while Gergely Kiss twice finished inside the top-20 (claiming 19th and 13th place).
However, Thomas Teofili was on balance the top performer for the team. He was another athlete to log five scores over the course of the season. He kicked things off with a top-20 finish of his own, claiming 14th place in Fréjus. From there, he finished 36th, 51st, 31st and 27th.
Although Teofili was never the first man home for Toulouse, he was nonetheless a vital part of the team. With his steady supply of solid performances, he provided the bedrock upon which the appearances of Lessmann and Kiss could be added.
Sainte-Geneviève Triathlon – 10th
Igor Dupuis was the rather obvious choice as Sainte-Geneviève’s top performer. He contributed five scores to the team, four of which were as the team’s highest finisher.
In addition, he achieved the team’s only top-10 finish of the season. For good measure, he did it twice.
Dupuis started his season with a 15th place before finishing 10th, 17th, 26th and 10th. He was a measure of consistency throughout the season. Such was his form, he may have turned a couple of heads at some teams higher up the rankings that could do with a regular top-20 finisher like him.
Evreux A.C. Triathlon – 12th
Evreux are a team built primarily around the talents of three men: Thomas Laurent, Martin Laurent and Lilian Pierre. Any of that trio could be named the team’s top performer in 2023. All three raced at all five stops and formed the points scorers for Evreux at each one.
T. Laurent was the top finisher at a race on two occasions while M. Laurent did so once. Pierre then contributed two team-leading finishes.
Pierre had the best finish of the season with his 24th place in Saint-Jean-des-Monts. If one adds up his five results (54th, 37th, 30th, 35th and 24th), he also comes out with the lowest points total of the team (177).
M. Laurent was right behind in terms of points with 180; he also logged a top-30 finish with his 27th place in Metz. T. Laurent did not break into the top-30 at any race and his five scores sum to 201 points.
Although it is very close, Pierre comes out on top as the leading man.
Vitrolles Triathlon – 14th
Vitrolles were led by two main men in 2023.
Joris Bassle scored on four occasions for the time and produced the top result on three instances. Over the course of the season, he would finish 18th, 23rd, 38th and 46th. Meanwhile, Thomas Pietrera logged three results in 2023, finishing 24th, 29th and 24th. When the pair raced together in the opening two rounds, Vitrolles unsurprisingly managed their best finishes of the season.
Pietrera was the more consistent of the two and never finished outside the top-30. However, Bassle beat Pietrera’s best finish on two occasions. His repeated performances also added a lot of value to the team as they steered clear of relegation.
While they were evenly matched at times, Bassle nudged ahead as the top performer courtesy of his top-20 finish and extra appearance.
La Rochelle Triathlon – 16th
As with Vitrolles, the choice of La Rochelle’s top performer comes down to two men. While Gergo Dobi had the top finish of the team (placing 35th in his sole appearance), Remi Delagarde and Valentin Rouvier were the vital men.
Delagarde finished 45th, 42nd, 46th and 59th in his four appearances. Across five races, Rouvier finished 48th, 46th, 39th, 39th and 51st. The pair therefore lost to one another twice and beat one another twice.
Seeing as Rouvier was the only one of the two to break into the top-40 (doing so twice) and appeared at one more race, he pips Delagarde as being La Rochelle’s top performer.
