Maxime Bouet

Maxime Bouet

Bouet at the 2014 Tour de l'Ain
Personal information
Full name	Maxime Bouet
Nickname	Le Blond
Born	(1986-11-03) 3 November 1986 Belley, France
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	64 kg (141 lb; 10.1 st)
Team information
Current team	Etixx–Quick-Step
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Puncheur
Professional team(s)
2008–2009	Agritubel
2010–2014	Ag2r–La Mondiale
2015-	Etixx–Quick-Step
Infobox last updated on 4 January 2015

Maxime Bouet (born 3 November 1986) is a French road racing cyclist who rides for UCI ProTour team Etixx–Quick-Step.^[1]

Early years

Born in Belley, Ain, Bouet participated at the French national track and road championships as a junior in 2003. At the track championships he won the silver medal in the individual pursuit, while at the road championships he took the bronze medal at the individual time trial.^[2] In the following year (2004) he improved both results, winning the gold medal in the individual pursuit and the silver medal in the individual time trial.^[2] In January 2006 Bouet took part in the La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, a stage race in Gabon where he finished in 15th position overall.^[3] That same year, on the 1st of May he finished 19th in the under-23 version of Liège–Bastogne–Liège.^[4] He also reached the fourth position of the sixth stage in the Giro della Valle d'Aosta, an individual time trial over 10.1 kilometres where he finished 51 seconds behind winner Dan Martin.^[5]

2007–2009 Agritubel

During the 2007 cycling season Bouet signed a contract with Agritubel as a stagiaire. His first notable result for them was when he reached the fourth place in the general classification of the Rhône-Alpes Isère Tour.^[6] He then came third in the first three stages of the Bidasoa Itzulia,^[2] the second stage of the Tour du Chablais,^[2] the third and fourth stage of the Ronde de l'Isard d'Ariège as well as the general classification of that last race.^[2]

Agritubel offered him a professional contract for the 2008 season in which he started off with a 20th place at the Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise.^[7] After gaining more experience in the Tour Méditerranéen (19th), the Tour du Haut Var (47th), the Les 3 Jours de Vaucluse (17th) and the Volta ao Distrito de Santarem (116th) he won his first professional race on the 24th of March during the first stage of the Tour de Normandie, a 5.8 km prologue in and around Mondeville.^[8] The six seconds he was ahead of Jos van Emden were enough to keep him in the leader's jersey for the next two days.^[9] This year he finished sixh in the Rhône-Alpes Isère Tour, 11th in the Clasica a Alcobendas y Collado Villalba and fourth in the Circuit de Lorraine.^[9] In the last couple of months of the season he became second at the French national track championships at the individual pursuit and third in the second stage of the Tour de l'Ain. He was called up to represent France at the under-23s race of the 2008 UCI Road World Championships in Varese where he came in 83rd place in a race that was won by Fabio Duarte.^[9]

His last season for Agritubel Bouet also started off in the Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise, this time claiming the 7th spot, just one minute and seven seconds behind winner Rémi Pauriol.^[10] That same month he finished 19th in the Tour du Haut Var and also managed to win his first race of the season, the first stage of the Les 3 Jours de Vaucluse, including the leading jersey. In the end he finished in second spot behind team mate David Le Lay.^[11] Bouet competed in his first Paris–Nice race afterwards, finishing in 64th position overall. At the Volta ao Alentejo Bouet managed to win another stage race opener and wore the leader's jersey for two days until Hector Guerra Garcia won the individual time trial in stage 3.^[12] However, with a third place in the 5th and last stage of the race he reclaimed the lead and took the overall win, one second ahead of Guerra Garcia.^[13] After finishing third in the general classification of the Rhône-Alpes Isère Tour Bouet focussed on some of the classic races. He managed to reach the finish of 2009 La Flèche Wallonne in 138th position, but did not finish 2009 Liège–Bastogne–Liège.^[11] Bouet was added to the 2009 Tour de France shortlist for Agritubel and was preparing for his first grand tour. With a win in the Boucles de l'Aulne and a seventh place in the GP Kanton Aargau Gippingen he confirmed his form and made the final selection.^[11] In the third stage from Marseille to La Grande-Motte, a race won by Mark Cavendish, Bouet sprinted in the bunch to a ninth position, earning him his first and only top ten result of the Tour de France that year.^[14] A great result in the 20th stage from Montélimar to the Mont Ventoux in which he finished in 17th place Bouet secured a 69th overall ranking when finishing on the Champs-Élysées in Paris the day after.^[15] The 2009 season for Bouet ended in August after he became third in the second stage of the Tour de l'Ain where the claimed the 11th spot overall.^[11]

2010–2014 Ag2r-La Mondiale

For the 2010 season Bouet signed a new contract, this time with AG2R La Mondiale. Starting off with a 60th place in the GP d'Ouverture Marseillaise, 41st place in the Tour du Haut Var and a 14th spot in the GP dell'Insubria.^[16] In the Gran Premio di Lugano he finished fourth in the same group as winner Roberto Ferrari,^[17] while in 2010 Paris–Nice he finished in 21st position overall.^[18] The next two months Bouet took part in a lot of one day classics like 2010 Milan - San Remo (152nd), 2010 Critérium International (41st), 2010 Amstel Gold Race (88th), and 2010 La Flèche Wallonne (80th), but his best results were held in the 2010 GP Miguel Indurain (7th), the Circuit de Lorraine (9th) and the Boucles de l'Aulne (10th).^[16] The 45th place he finished at in the 2010 Critérium du Dauphiné was a preparation for the 2010 Tour de France where he finished in 105th place overall.^[16] In the second stage however, that was completely held in Belgium on a track from Brussels to Spa he finished as the first rider of the peloton in second position, three minutes and 56 seconds after lone winner Sylvain Chavanel.^[19] In the sixth stage Bouet ended up in the breakaway group that managed to get a huge gap ahead of the peloton. In the end Sergio Paulinho took the win in that stage, running from Chambéry to Gap, with Bouet finishing in sixth place, three minutes and 20 seconds behind Paulinho, but still way ahead of the peloton that reached the finish line 14 minutes and 19 seconds later than Paulinho.^[20] In August that year he won the third stage of the Tour de l'Ain and became 11th overall.^[16]

2011 started with 45th-place finish in the Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise, followed by the eighth position of the Étoile de Bessèges and a 15th place in the Tour du Haut Var.^[21] These results were followed by another eighth position in the GP Regio Insubrica, a 13th place in the Gran Premio di Lugano and a 60th place overall in 2011 Paris–Nice.^[21] Other main races he competed in were the Volta a Catalunya (35th), the Flèche d'Emeraude (16th), the 2011 Amstel Gold Race (124th), the 2011 Tour de Romandie (89th), the Bayern-Rundfahrt (13th) and the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné (23rd).^[21] Before the 2011 Tour de France started Bouet finished 5th in the French national road cycling championship. In the Tour de France he did not come up with remarkable results, but managed to reach Paris in 54th position overall.^[21] Soon after the Tour de France finished he reached the third place in the Bordeaux Criterium, 15th in the Grand Prix de Fourmies, 14th in the Grand Prix de Wallonie, fourth in the Gran Premio Industria e Commercio di Prato as well as third in the Tour de Vendée.^[21]

Bouet came to a 21st position in the 2012 Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise and became third in the individual time trial part of the 5th stage in the Étoile de Bessèges.^[22] In the Tour du Haut-Var he reached the eighth position, while he finished 12th in the Gran Premio di Lugano.^[22] He went on to perform well in 2012 Paris–Nice where he reached the 14th spot overall, followed by a 12th place in the 2012 Critérium International.^[22]

2015–2016 Etixx-Quick Step

In August 2014 Omega Pharma–Quick-Step announced that Bouet would join them on a two-year contract from 2015, with a role as a domestique for Rigoberto Urán and with a view to eventually compete for stage wins in races such as the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour of the Basque Country.^[23]

2017– Fortuneo-Vital Concept

In August 2016 Bouet announced that he was following team-mate Gianni Meersman to Fortuneo–Vital Concept, joining the team with a two-year deal from 2017. The move would reunite him with team manager Emmanuel Hubert, who signed him to his first professional contract when he was in charge of Agritubel. In his announcement he expressed a desire to race as a team leader with the French squad.^[24]

Career achievements

Major results

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Giro	–	–	–	–	–	38	47	–
Tour	70	106	55	55	WD	–	–	–
Vuelta	–	–	–	20	–	WD	28	47

WD = Withdrew; IP = In Progress

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maxime Bouet.

• Maxime Bouet profile at Cycling Archives