RIDER DIARIES
Dan, Alex, George and Emilia
Tour de France time again. It seems to come around quicker each year. This year is billed as the highest edition ever, referring to the number of climbs and time spent at high altitude.
At first glance it looks a bit like a knee-jerk reaction to last year’s tedium, shared by riders and the public (okay, maybe not the sprinters), when we endured eight flat stages before the cobblestones of Roubaix. Yes, I won one of the ‘flat’ stages and another was a TTT, plus those stages that appear flat are usually stressful and mentally taxing as the fight for position, even at slow speeds, demands full concentration. But to sum it up, it was boring.
Not this year though. You never get a day off at the Tour. Even the easiest stage is tough, but 2019 is action-packed every day, it seems. A Flanders-style stage to start,
a TTT, some tricky sprint stages and an early mountain top finish at La Planche des Belles Filles. One of the difficulties last year was that once we arrived at the first mountain, we had effectively not seen a climb for about two weeks. It’s hard to adapt to the change in rhythm. Obviously the fact that there is just one individual time trial suits me, and after riding the route in May, I’d say it is a very interesting course. It’s very technical and demands precise judgement of effort on some short rolling climbs, before a flat blast back into Pau and a nasty surprise in the final kilometre.
The Pyrenees is where the hierarchy will be decided. I expect the stages to lead to aggressive racing. The Tourmalet is long and exposed with some really steep sections at the summit. The new climb of Prat d’Albis was not what I expected and anybody who hasn’t done their homework will be in for a surprise. It’s a tough, irregular climb with exposed, slightly easier sections at the top, but coming on stage 15 and after the steep Mur de Péguère it could be decisive.
The second mountain range of the race is usually status quo as guys defend what they have.
If a strong team has yellow it is difficult to get time back. I haven’t yet seen the Alpine stages, but the nature of the climbs in the Alps generally makes attacking less fruitful. But it’s the Tour – anything can happen.
I like the route and I think it suits me. I just need to avoid the misfortune that has plagued my Tours in recent years.