Mclay hopes to bounce back at Tour after stopstart season

Dan Mclay is set to go into next month’s Tour de France hoping that the injuries and illness that have beset him since the start of this season are behind him. Aiming to build on an impressive 2016 season, when he finished his debut Tour and finished a very close third in a bunch sprint during the first week, the Fortuneo-vital Concept sprinter has been set back by illness and an undiagnosed broken rib this year.

“I started the year training at altitude in Colombia and that trip went really well, but unfortunately it later became clear that I’d done the whole first part of the season with a broken rib so I never managed to take advantage of that training block,” Mclay told Cycling Weekly at the Route du Sud.

“I don’t know where it happened. I fractured it in Majorca and I only found out later that I’d broken it again because it showed on the on an x-ray that it hadn’t healed. It could have been when I crashed in Het Nieuwsblad, which stuffed me up a little bit. It’s only now that I feel like I’m getting back to my best form again.”

One of Fortuneo’s main hopes for success at the Tour after his startling performances at the race last year, Mclay believes he’s done enough to ensure he’ll be among the French team’s nine-man line-up in Düsseldorf on July 1. “Hopefully I’ll be going to the Tour. Nothing’s certain yet, but the form’s coming,” he said.

Assuming his Tour selection is confirmed, Mclay says he won’t ride the race with any particular goal beyond contending in the sprints as best as he can. “I’d like to do better than last year, but it’s hard to go into the Tour with an idea of what you’d be happy or not happy with. I just go into every sprint stage trying to win. That’s the only way to approach the bunch sprints,” he said.