Pinot’s team insist he is in contention
French rider 1-0 down at half-time, says manager Yates a silent assassin waiting to give KO blow
There was some decent fighting talk at yesterday’s rest day press conferences at the Tour de France.
Marc Madiot, the Groupama-fdj manager, was the punchiest, insisting that it was too early to “bury” his team, despite his leader, Thibaut Pinot, disastrously losing 1min 47sec to his rivals when the race split in the crosswinds on Monday.
“If we were in a football match, we’d say we were at half-time and the score was 1-0,” Madiot argued. “One-nil is not a defeat. It’s not the end of the match.”
Race leader Julian Alaphilippe was also on fighting form. The Deceuninck-quickstep rider insisted that far from tumbling out of contention, as many predict he will once the race hits the Pyrenees this week, he was hoping to stay in the maillot jaune for as long as possible. “I hope to surprise myself,” Alaphilippe said. “We will see.”
Geraint Thomas did not sound overly concerned.
The Welshman, who rose to second on general classification, 1min 12sec behind Alaphilippe, thanks to Ineos’s tactical masterclass on Monday, is now a heavy favourite to win back-to-back Tours and sounds more and more assured.
Thomas did, though, concede that Alaphilippe was a “bit of an unknown” and would need to be carefully watched, even if he expected him to fall away at some point.
One man who was not throwing verbal hand grenades, or talking up his chance, was Adam Yates. The Bury rider, like his twin, Simon, prefers to let his legs do the talking. And they have been talking very well so far at this Tour. Quietly, unspectacularly, Yates has ridden himself right into GC contention this year.
The 26-year-old sits seventh, 35sec behind Thomas, and while he can expect to lose a bit more time to the Ineos rider in Friday’s individual time trial in Pau, he then hopes to start making a few inroads.
Yates admitted yesterday that his team, Mitcheltonscott, have “a strategy” to which they have stuck assiduously this year. “We’ve not missed a beat yet,” he said. “OK, we’ve lost five seconds here [Epernay], a few seconds there [La Planche des Belles Filles], but in general we’re in a good place.” Yates would not elaborate, but clearly a big part of that strategy has been to save his legs wherever possible during the first 10 days rather than attack for small rewards here and there.
A good example was Saturday’s finish into Saint-etienne, when Pinot and Alaphilippe attacked over the top of the final climb and made 30sec on the bunch over the final 15 kilometres.
Yates chose to not even try to go with them. “Probably,” he replied yesterday when asked whether he felt he could have. “It might have been a gain. But it’s a lot of effort.”
Yates has clearly learned from his twin brother’s experiences last year. He saw Simon attack at every opportunity at the Giro d’italia before blowing up spectacularly in the final week. He then saw him ride far more conservatively at the Vuelta a Espana and pull off a stunning victory. It is clear which example he is following.
Could he do it? It is not beyond the realms of possibility. In 2016, Yates finished fourth at the age of 23. And that was despite “hanging on” in every mountain stage that year. This time, he says, he hopes to be in a better position to “try something” if he gets the opportunity. Like a silent assassin, waiting to deliver the knockout blow.
“It all depends on the legs,” Yates shrugged. “I can say now I’m racing to win but unless I have the legs to do it, it’s just talk. As things stand, I feel good.”