The third athlete is so often pivotal to the success of any team in the French Grand Prix. With three athletes scoring at any given race, depth can be as much a determinant of a team’s prospects as individual brilliance.
Over the course of the season, though, some athletes mark themselves out from their teammates and step up as the star performer for their squad. As much as the team supersedes the individual in the French Grand Prix, there will always be space for someone to stand out.
In this series, we will examine the top performers for each team in the top division of the Grand Prix. The approach taken here is a subjective one. The athlete that races frequently and scores the most points overall is naturally important, but so too is the athlete that is the team’s top finisher on a regular basis or the one that brings home a medal.
The goal, then, is to strike a balance between regular appearances, high finishes and general consistency. With that in mind, today we are starting with part 1 of the men’s first division.
Saint-Jean-des-Monts Vendée Triathlon – 1st
Perhaps it should come as no surprise from the men’s champions, but selecting a top performer for Saint-Jean-des-Monts Vendée is a real challenge.
All things considered, the contest comes down to a dead heat between Louis Vitiello and Nathan Grayel. The French pair were integral to Saint-Jean-des-Monts Vendée’s success and neither of them finished outside the top-10 in any of their four appearances in 2023. On the only occasion that they did not race – in the third round when they each raced at the European Cup in Holten instead – Saint-Jean-des-Monts Vendée recorded their worst result of the season.
Vitiello was a model of consistency, finishing 4th, 6th, 4th and 8th. Grayel had a slightly wider range in performances, finishing 6th, 5th, 2nd and 9th. As a sign of how evenly matched the two were, their total finishes add up to an identical 22 points. Moreover, each man beat the other twice.
Mario Mola won the season opener in Fréjus and Leo Bergere came 3rd in Bordeaux, but no mistake should be made. Saint-Jean-des-Monts Vendée were primarily carried by Vitiello and Grayel.
As Grayel won the only medal of the pair, he shades it as the top performer by the narrowest of margins.
Triathlon Club Liévin – 3rd
Liévin had a very different foundation to Saint-Jean-des-Monts Vendée. Whereas the champions built their success around Vitiello and Grayel, Liévin utilised a revolving cast of WTCS stars to bring in race victories.
Between them, Hayden Wilde, Matthew Hauser and Jelle Geens raced once and won once, delivering a 100% hit rate. However, as impressive as their victories were, there is little to separate them from one another.
Meanwhile, Yanis Seguin and Brandon Copeland each brought three valuable scores to the team. Seguin finished 17th, 12th and then 3rd; his final performance was particularly impressive and sealed 2nd place for the team in the round even without their top tier talent.
It was Copeland, though, that was the top performer. In three appearances, he finished 8th, 7th and 4th, making him the most consistent man on the team. At the finale, he was also only edged out by Seguin by a few seconds.
No one else contributed two top-8 finishes to the team in a season in which Copeland managed three. That achievement therefore separates him from his teammates.
Metz Triathlon – 5th
Noah Servais was quite a simple choice as Metz’s top performer in the end. In four appearances, he was the team’s top finisher three times. The only time he was not the first man home was when Maxime Hueber Moosbrugger finished 2nd in Bordeaux. However, that also represented Hueber Moosbrugger’s only race for Metz in 2023.
Servais opened his account with a 7th place in Fréjus and then ended his season with a 6th place in Saint-Jean-des-Monts. In between, he finished 11th in Bordeaux and 13th in Quiberon.
As a consistent force for Metz, and the only man with more than two top-15 finishes (Aurelien Jem brought home two), Servais was the star of the show.
Mach 3 Vienne Condrieu Agglomération – 7th
If Metz was a more straightforward selection, Mach 3 is a little tricker. The choice for the top performer ultimately comes down to a shoot-out between Thomas Rivet and Basile Fouchard.
Rivet logged finishes of 31st, 31st, 20th and 14th, three of which were team-leading results. Fouchard was Mach 3’s top scorer twice as he finished 25th, 27th, 22nd and 16th.
Rivet had the better top finish but Fouchard was more consistent, making the choice between them a tricky one.
On the basis that Rivet beat Fouchard three times in 2023 (one of Fouchard’s team-leading results came when Rivet did not race), we have plumped for Rivet. Both men, though, were essential to Mach 3 breaking into the overall top-8.
Triathl’Aix – 9th
At the start of the season, Casemir Moine looked like he would be the runaway top performer after finishing 13th and 16th in the first two rounds. However, he did not score in the final three races.
As a result, Quentin Barreau emerged as the top performer.
Across four races, Barreau logged three top-20 results and twice was Triathl’Aix’s first man home. He finished 19th, 16th, 33rd and 20th over the campaign and cemented himself as the team’s top contributor.
M.S.A. Triathlon – 11th
M.S.A. faced a similar dynamic to Triathl’Aix. While Menno Koolhaas brought home some of the team’s best finishes of the year in his two showings, finishing 9th and 15th, an athlete that appeared more often has denied him the top performer mantle.
Maxime Bonvalet was among a rare group of athletes to score at all five races in 2023. His finishes of 25th, 44th, 38th and 34th were fairly consistent and helped M.S.A. to accrue a solid points total. It was his showing in Quiberon, though, that stood out.
That day, Bonvalet finished 8th, claiming the team’s best finish of the season. The combination of his five races and the team’s top finish of the season thus made him the top performer.
Tri Val de Gray – 13th
Once again, the top performer came down to an athlete that raced twice and once that appeared in almost every race.
Paul Lebois shook off a 75th place to also finish 15th, 29th and 33rd in his four appearances. In two of those displays, he was Val de Gray’s first man home. On the other hand, Baptiste Passemard recorded finishes of 12th and 17th in his two displays.
While Lebois’ 75th place does not help his case, he just about edges out Passemard. He was the top performer at as many races as his teammate and brought home a useful finish at an additional appearance. His 15th place also put him in a similar bracket to Passemard in terms of top personal result.
Montluçon Triathlon – 15th
Montluçon’s season started well as they finished 3rd overall in Fréjus. At the heart of that was Genis Grau as he took an individual bronze medal in his only appearance of 2023.
Aside from Felix Duchampt’s 10th at the same race, no one else managed to match Grau’s feat of making it into the top-20. Indeed, only two other men finished inside the top-30 across the entire season (Jordi Garcia took 23rd in Fréjus and Miguel Tiago Silva placed 29th in Saint-Jean-des-Monts).
In the absence of any other substantial points contributions, Grau’s medal earns him the top performer status for Montluçon.
Montpellier Triathlon – 17th
Montpellier had a similar season of travails to Montluçon except they lacked the high point of Fréjus. Their bright note of the season arguably came with Baptiste Massot’s 41st place in the final round.
Teo Katgely almost pipped Massot to the top performer status as he scored four times for the team and was twice the top finisher. However, Massot was the only man to record a top-50 finish for the team in 2023. For that reason, he made the most notable contribution for the team which out-weighs the consistency of his teammates.
