Pierre Le Corre and Leo Bergere fought out one of the finishes of the season on a day of French domination at WTCS Sunderland.

It was Le Corre who just got to the tape first to edge out the current world champion but the result underlined that France will be the team to beat at the Olympics test event in Paris in three weeks’ time.

And that was amplified when Cassandre Beaugrand and Emma Lombardi matched the men with a one-two in the women’s race.

Bonus win

Chatting to us afterwards, Le Corre said: “That was amazing. I thought that I could beat the guys at the end of the race because I used to be really strong on the sprints. But I’m getting older so I don’t know anymore, but apparently I’m good!

“We are trying to get ready for Paris, that’s most important but I was feeling good here and I think it’s a bonus.”

Le Corre – and Bergere – have both had a big training block at altitude heading into Sunderland and this sets them up perfectly for both the test event and the WTCS finale in Ponte Vedra.

“Yeah, it’s a boost because you need some confidence when you race at this level,” added Le Corre. “Anything can happen but I’m confident and I’m happy to race, I’m happy to train. And that’s the most important. You need to be healthy and have a good spirit.”

Les Bleus the ones to beat?

And that was echoed by Bergere who told us: “It’s a good sign for the French team. But in the same time, there was no Alex Yee here today and a few guys were missing.

“We have this at the back of our mind and everyone will be at top shape in Paris in a few weeks but let’s keep working in the same way and we should be all right.”

Asked what the plan is between now and the test event, he added: “We’ve been at attitude for the last month, so now I will work a little bit more on intensity training rather than volume and a bit more specific for Paris.”