It was a time when road racers often prepared their year in the winter ploughings of cyclo-cross. Cyrille Guimard, French champion of the discipline in 1976, knew something about it, who also made his riders work hard in the mud, once he became sports director at Renault-Gitane. This picture, taken in the Ardèche, in the domain of Rouret, not far from Bessèges, shows it. Guimard (left) himself took care to lay out a course for his two young riders, Marc Madiot (23, center) and Martial Gayant (20, right), to train for the World Cyclo-cross Championships, scheduled for ten days later in Birmingham.
Gayant was the fresh French cyclo-cross champion, a title he had won three days earlier in terrible Pyrenean weather conditions, which allowed him to succeed Madiot, who was only third in Béarn. The day after this Ardèche outing, Marc Madiot and Martial Gayant will take part in the Grand Prix de Lunel, the first stage of the Étoile de Bessèges, the traditional kick-off of the French stage race season in early February. They will then leave the Cévennes and head to Pontchâteau to resume their specific preparation. In Birmingham, on a very technical course designed for specialists, Gayant (19th) and Madiot (22nd) will nevertheless miss their Worlds.
Nicolas Herbelot