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Okay so I'm going to start a thread of random facts about Benoît Cosnefroy that will be continued through his off-season.
#1 - According to PCS, the BIB he had for longest time is #33. He had it on both editions of Tour in which he has been (2019&2020) but also in Amstel Gold Race (2019, 44th), Giro della Toscana (2018, DNF) and Coppa Sabatini (2018, 9th).
#2 – He has taken his first win on Prix Louis Cosnefroy, when he was 16 y.o. As you may have guessed, that is a race connected to his family, exactly it's a race dedicated to Benoît's great-great-grandfather.
#3 – On Tour 2020, Cosnefroy had Maillot a Pois for 15 days, no one in this century had it for longer, only Wellens in 2019 had it for 15 days as well.
(I had to XD)
(I had to XD)
#4 – To present himself to Chambéry CF, 18 y.o. Cosnefroy went on 9 hours of hitchhiking journey.
#5 – As of October 2020, out of Cosnefroy's 11 wins, 6 wins (~54,5%) are one-day races, 2 wins (~18,2%) are GCs and 3 wins (~27,3%) are stages.
#6 – Cosnefroy is one out of 7 riders who have taken their pro win on 02/02/2020, it was a worldwide palindrome day (last day like that was on 11/11/1111!). He has won GP La Marseillaise back then.
This seems a lot but if we consider that in WT teams alone there's 556 riders...
This seems a lot but if we consider that in WT teams alone there's 556 riders...
#7 – Despite a pretty popular belief about turning upside-down BIB #13, when Cosnefroy had this one on Etoile de Besseges, he didn't have it upside-down. He of course won the GC of the race.
#8 – So far his best season if it comes to wins was 2019 season, where he took 5 wins: Paris – Camembert, La Polynormande, GP Plumelec and Tour du Limousin GC + stage 3.
#9 – On Tour du Limousin 2019 he had no other results than 3rd or 1st place on all the stages.
#10 – His first professional win (x.1 or higher) was Grand Prix d'Isbergues taken on 17/09/2017, so only like a month after officially becoming a pro.
#11 – According to PCS, as of October 2020, Cosnefroy has already travelled 45 419 kms on races since 2013. That's more than length of the Equator, which is about 40 075 kms long!
#12 – He rode the final ITT of Etoile de Besseges 2020 without the GC leader jersey because... organisator didn't provide ITT one on time.
#13 – As of October 2020, he had 21 Distinctive Jerseys in his career (w/o finals&duplicates): 15x KOM classification in Tour (2020), 1x GC in Etoile de Besseges (2020), 3x Youth classification in Tour du Limousin (2019) and 1x Youth classification in Etoile de Besseges (2018)
#14 – The race where Cosnefroy travelled most kms is of course Tour de France with 6886 kms, on second place it's Tour du Limousin with 2823 kms and on third Paris - Nice with 2311 kms (as of October 2020, sourced from PCS)
#15 – As for his most often visited race it's ex aequo for Paris-Tours (2016-2018&2020), Tour du Limousin (2016-2019) and French NCs U23 (2014-2017), in all of these he have participated 4 times each. (Oct 2020, PCS)
#16 – So far, out of all The Monuments he started only in Liege – Bastogne – Liege (3 times). In 2018 there was DNF, in 2019 – 45th place and in 2020 – 18th place.
#17 – Cosnefroy was only on two Grand Tours and both of them were Tour de France (in 2019 and 2020). In 2019 he ended up on 113th (+3h25'57”) and in 2020 on 116th (+5h00'43”) in GC.
#18 – The only professional season in which Cosnefroy didn't have any wins, was 2018. He was twice on podium though, 2nd on stage 2 of Boucles de la Mayenne and 3rd on Paris-Tours.
#19 – Tour 2020 KOM Classification was Cosnefroy's first ever KOM Classification in which he was leading.
#20 – His highest final place in KOM Classification was third place in KOM Classification of Etoile de Besseges 2018.
#21 – The most kms Cosnefroy travelled on races was 12 705 kms in 2019. More than half of the distance was made on Tour de France (3404 kms, ~26% of total!), Criterium du Dauphine (1202 kms), Paris – Nice (1208 kms) and UAE Tour (1082 kms) (Nov 2020, PCS)
#22 – Cosnefroy's first professional (class x.1 and higher) TOP 10 was on 27/05/2017 on GP Plumelec and it was 6th place.
#23 – First Cosnefroy's start in professional race (x.1 and higher) was on 28/05/2016, also GP Plumelec. He started with France's U23 team and finished on 19th place.
#24 – When he was starting in National Championships U23 in 2016 and 2017 he didn't represent Normandie but Auvergne – Rhone – Alpes. It was probably because his team (in which he was back then), Chambéry CF, is based in that region.
#25 – Teammate with which Cosnefroy raced most races was Jauregui (37 races) but most racedays he shared with Cherel (97 racedays) (Nov 2020, PCS)
#26 – That 2nd place on La Fleche Wallonne 2020 is Cosnefroy's first ever podium on a classic classified as World Tour one.
#27 – In Cosnefroy's entire career, as of November 2020, he was the so-called „Lanterne Rouge” (last place in GC) only once: for one stage, after 1st stage of Tour de la Provence 2018.
#28 – First race classified as World Tour one in which Cosnefroy has taken part was Abu Dhabi Tour 2018.
