Antoine Duchesne
Polka dots, Olympic rings and wine
In March, Antoine Duchesne won the polka dot jersey at Paris-nice. His run for the climber’s honour started on Stage 5. He was trying to win the stage from a breakaway. The win eluded him, but he was back in the breakaway the following day, which got him into the polka dots. After that race, it was off to the Spring Classics. The big goals for the Saguenay, Que., native in the next half of the season are the Tour and the Olympics. He has a good shot at both.
Tell me about the place you and Hugo Houle of Ag2r-la Mondiale share in Saint-restitut, France, which is about 150 km north of Marseille. It’s in a duplex. We’re on the ground floor. We’re surrounded by a forest. It’s in a small town on the top of a little mountain. It’s beautiful. It’s really quiet and really nice. Because I’m travelling all the time, it’s really great to have a home and a place to cook.
You’ve been there for about two years. What’s it like living with Hugo, a fellow Quebecer? It’s really nice. He’s a little bit like a big brother. He’s really organized and he pushes me to do the same. But really, we’re not together that often, so we don’t have time to get tired of one another. At Paris-nice this year, during the final stage, Stage 8, you had to defend your polka dot jersey. How was that last stage? I was stressed, but was confident at the same time. I had a fairly strong advantage, about 20 points on Thomas De Gendt and Jesus Herrada. If they were in the breakaway without me, they could have taken the jersey. So I was just scared about getting in the break. But once I got in, I knew they wouldn’t be able to get the jersey.
On flat, sprinter-oriented stages, what’s your role on the team? On those stages, we work for Bryan Coquard. Since I’m good at fighting and getting into position, from 5 to 2 km to go, I’m good there, when it’s not crazy fast. Then I let Sylvain Chavanel, Angélo Tulik and Adrien Petit take it for