Marseille 13-KTM to upgrade to Pro Conti rank

Besides a long story with Le Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia and the obligation made to Pro Teams to take part in the Tour of Beijing from 2011 to 2014, French teams aren’t exactly familiar with racing in Asia because there’s plenty of cycling activities in the country of the Tour de France but Marseille 13-KTM is an exception. Stage 5 winner of the Tour of Hainan Benjamin Giraud had been successful at the Tour de Taiwan, Tour of Qinghai Lake and Tour of China prior to getting the laurels in Qionzhong.

Formerly known as La Pomme Marseille since La Pomme – literally The Apple – is a district of Marseille, France’s second biggest city located on the Mediterranean Sea in the south of the country, the cycling team managed by Frédéric Rostaing has focused on the Asian market since their upgrade in the continental ranks in 2011. “We’re pioneers”, Rostaing said. “We aren’t looking at French cycling only. We have connections all over the world.”

Marseille is a regular participant to the Tour of Hainan since 2012. They’re actually the defending champions since they won the overall classification with Julien Antomarchi one year ago. “That was an achievement for us, being just a continental team and beating three World Tour teams in a Hors-Category race”, Rostaing added. They did it again this year in Europe with winning the Four Days of Dunkirk, another HC event in the North of France with Lithuania’s Ignatas Konovalovas who was hired by Pro Team FDJ for next year after that exploit.

In the past fifteen years, it’s been Marseille’s specialty to develop talents and get them a start with bigger teams. Just to name a few, Dan Martin, Nicolas Roche, Ramunas Navardauskas, Alexandre Geniez, Jussi Veikkanen, Rémy Di Gregorio and Daryl Impey have been nurtured at La Pomme.

It’s a different story now. Marseille keeps going up in the hierarchy of cycling. With the arrival of a new sponsor, Delko, their bid to integrate the Pro Continental ranks looks serious. “This is an extra motivation for us”, Giraud said. “We’re hopeful to get access to even bigger races.” But they won’t forget how productive the Asia Tour has been so far for their development.

(by Jean-François Quénet)