Geniez earns ticket for France’s world team

PARIS: AG2R rider Alexandre Geniez beat compatriot Warren Barguil (Fortuneo-Samsic) to the final spot in France’s world road race championship team, it was announced Thursday. The championships will be held on a hilly course around Innsbruck, Austria from next week, meaning specialist climbers, all-rounders and super-domestiques are filling the places of most teams. Barguil, a two-time Tour de France stage winner last year, had been vying with Geniez but also Guillaume Martin and Alexis Vuillermoz to join a team which is expected to be led by Thibaut Pinot. But national team coach Cyrille Guimard opted for Geniez on the basis of his recent participation on the Tour of Spain, where he won a stage. “It’s the workload over three weeks on this race that was the game-changer for me,” Guimard told the French cycling federation website.