After winning the Tour of the Mediterranean earlier this season, Davide Moncoutie’s desire to show well in Paris-Nice unravelled today when the Cofidis rider was forced to leave the race. The 35 year old called it quits less than 60 kilometres after the start of the stage in Montfort l’Amaury, retiring from the World Tour event.
“He was not well yesterday and suffered from a small pain in his knee,” said directeur sportif Stéphane Augé. “He therefore preferred to stop, thinking of the rest of the season.” Moncoutie had lost over eight minutes yesterday.
Had he been at 100 percent, his strong climbing ability would otherwise have made him one of the contenders in the race. The 35 is a three-time winner of the mountains classification in the Vuelta a España, and took the same prize in the 2005 and 2006 editions of Paris-Nice.
His best overall performance in the event came in 2001 when he was fourth overall, 55 seconds behind the Italian winner Dario Frigo.
Moncoutie’s caution will hopefully enable him to recover from the knee issue as quickly as possible. He has important goals later this season, and will be keeping those in mind.
In recent years he has concentrated more on hitting top for the Vuelta a España than the Tour de France, partly because of the heat in Spain. He’s conscious that he is nearing the end of his career, though, and said in Sepember that he wanted to return and chase a good result.
“This year, I watched the race, and it was sunny and hot,” he told La Depeche. “I told myself that I could do well there. If I come back in 2011, I'd be on the offensive, trying to win a stage. The polka dot jersey - why not?"
Even though he is in the running to take a fourth mountains jersey in the Vuelta, he might favour the Tour over it. “To do the double, the Tour de France and the Tour of Spain, is a bit complicated. I won two stages at the Tour de France, but I did not shine long. To finish my career in style at the Tour de France…it's tempting,” he said.
With this in mind, pulling out of Paris-Nice is all about avoiding taking risks with his health at this point of the year.