When asked by Cyclingnews whether the 2016 Vuelta a España is his last race as a professional, Jean Christophe Peraud gave a somewhat unexpected answer today.
"I don't know yet, I'd like it to be my last," says Peraud, who was second in the 2014 Tour de France, and the country's best placed overall finisher in the race in 17 years when he finished just behind Vincenzo Nibali. "Let's ask [AG2R sports director] Julien Jurdie, this way we'll find out."
Jurdie duly confirmed to Peraud that the Vuelta is his last mass start event as a professional, but then dropped what appears to be a little bombshell: that Peraud will be doing the trade team time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Qatar for his last outing in AG2R colours, an answer that does not appear particularly to please the 39-year-old.
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If Peraud's last event will be amidst Qatar's flat desert and the skyscrapers of Doha, his final mass start event is definitely this year's Vuelta, the race in which he began his Grand Tour career in 2010. He wants to go out with one last top result in the mountains, his favourite hunting ground
"My level is good, maybe not the absolute highest but acceptable when you look back at other years," Peraud told Cyclingnews. "I'm satisfied with it. I had a good ride in the Lagos de Covadonga [finishing 12th, as well as 13th in Peña Cabarga] and the worst was probably going up to Ezaro [on stage three, finishing 35th] where mentally I wasn't on my game.
"The objective is a stage win, but it's really difficult to find a chance, there really hasn't been an opportunity to get into a break. I tried yesterday [stage 12] in vain, but that turned out to be fortunate in any case because the break got pulled back."
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