KENNY ELISSONDE
The French rider discusses the challenges of ! itting into Sky’s mountain train
I joined Team Sky to be part of some great wins.
In this team there will always be someone stronger than me in the climbs and overall, so I know I have to work for someone. It’s really nice to be part of this. It was the same feeling riding for Thibaut Pinot at FDJ. He had something special. I would rather help riders win than be fifth or fourth or third myself. At the moment I’m not thinking about being a leader; I’m focused on being the best helper I can be. If you think about being the best leader it’s hard to be the best helper. You can’t be selfish in this role.
Team Sky is the best team on which to be a helper.
At FDJ we didn’t have such a strong culture behind the leaders. I had carte blanche to go on the attack. I was always attacking, slowing and accelerating again. When I came to Sky, I had never ridden this single pace that we do now. Sitting on the front was a new experience for me.
When you are around talented riders like Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas you learn a lot.
With riders like them you’d be stupid not to keep your eyes open and try to learn things. You learn more in training in, say, Tenerife than at races because when you race you’re just there to ride.
Tim Kerrison is my trainer.
I had worked with Julien Pinot [an FDJ coach] since I was 18, so coming here was a real change. My first year was a big change and this year I’ve started to feel at ease. Well, not that I wasn’t at ease but there was a lot of change and you need time to adjust.
I’ve had to adjust to how my leaders like to race.
Froomey likes a strong and consistent pace and then makes an attack – a really hard one – but before that he prefers a good pace. G [Thomas] is a time trial guy first so he likes this as well. Thibaut is a climber and he liked more changes of rhythm to make the difference.
It’s less of a risk to ride like Sky.
They have the best climbers and they don’t want to take any risks by allowing someone to attack who can then win. I can understand that to people outside it looks dominating. Inside it’s not like that – it’s often stressful. You can appreciate that when teams have a really strong rider, they do the same because it is the safest way to keep the leader in the race to be in contention at the end. Richie Porte tried to do the same last year.
Some people think I am just looking at the watts when I’m making the pace.
That’s not true. People think, oh, you did a 6.3w/kg pace today – no. It is done on a lot of feeling. It’s not as calculated as people think. If you look at the TV it looks easy. It really is not.
Riding hard on the front has a psychological element as well.
If you ride on front or if you are in the wheels, it’s not the same. On the front you have control. When I was with FDJ, it was really dominating. When I turned pro in 2012 it was the start of Sky’s train. I remember seeing Michael Rogers and Edvald Boasson Hagen coming through. Sometimes you were pushing as hard as you could [to keep up] and you couldn’t go in the breakaway.
It’s harder for pure climbers to come through at the top of the sport.
For climbers it takes a few years to build the power. It took me one or two years to get strong and find consistency on climbs. Like, one day I’d be good and the next day I'd be dropped. I know a lot of guys who are incredibly strong on climbs but they never make it because at the bottom of the climb they are just empty. But now I think the wheel is turning with the Colombians coming through.
I don’t worry about my acceleration being blunted by working on the front.
In training we work a lot on acceleration. The training is intense and it’s not just based on pace. You also need to have that to be able to respond to attacks.