Arkea Samsic, the UCI pro team that includes Colombian climber Nairo Quintana and French road race champion Warren Barguil, has given five of its riders one-year contract extensions to stay with the French team at least through the 2021 season

General.

General manager Emmanuel Hubert praised the contributions to the team of Anthony Delaplace, Maxime Bouet, Laurent Pichon, Romain Aldi, and Alain Rioux for signing Quintana and sprinter Nasser Bouhani for the 2020 season, Giving them new contracts as the team continues to grow.

"Maxime is one of the team's executives," Hubert said in a team press release Tuesday about Boué, who has been with the team since 2017. 'He is also, above all, an excellent teammate, able to give 100 percent to the leaders. His constant humor is also important and is reflected throughout the group."

Of Delaplace, Hubert said: brave, loyal, and never calculating, Anthony is able to keep pace at the front of the peloton to close the gap."

"He is also an aggressive rider and one day he will find the gap he deserves to be very successful," said the French rider, whose only professional career win came in 2011 at La Poly Normande.

"Understated but efficient, Romain knows how to win when he is in a position to win," Hubert said of Aldi, who won the French one-day race, the Tour du Dubs, in 2017 and a stage at the Tour du Haut Var in 2012. He said, "He's a perfect rider, he can climb, he can sprint from a small group.

Meanwhile, the 23-year-old Rioux was praised and rewarded for his "serious" approach.

"Alain is a young rider who is improving each season. He doesn't say much, but his seriousness is admired by all. He made great progress at the beginning of the year, and when the season resumes with the Tour de Occitanie, he has made great progress again," Hubert said. Rioux led Barguil to seventh place overall in the French stage race that ended earlier this week.