How do you know it’s the Tour de France? Everything! This race is so incredibly big and so important – no one in cycling can escape it. The fact that I’m now able to take part in the Tour for the tenth time makes me very happy and proud.
Even the days before the Grand Départ are so special, so different from any other race. On Thursday morning we trained as a team for two hours, nothing crazy. But then from 2 p.m. onwards we were on the road. Photo shoots, video shoots, also in the fantastic setting of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. There have certainly never been so many fine racing machines in these old, magnificent walls. This year, the tour begins in Italy for the first time in its long history. The first three stages lead to Rimini, Bologna and Turin, before heading over the Alps to France.
The traditional briefing by Tour boss Christian Prudhomme to all the racers also took place in the Palazzo Vecchio. He once again pointed out the enormous importance of the race for our sport. The media reach of the Tour is greater than that of all other races of the year combined.
Prudhomme not only prepared us for the next three weeks of racing, but also appealed to us for fairness and mutual respect in the peloton. That is the crucial first step to avoid crashes. And the terrible mass crashes that we have experienced in the Tour in recent years have cast a negative shadow on this sporting institution. Let’s see how it goes this year. I dare not hope that anything will change. It is so important and extraordinary for the riders and teams to win something in the Tour that the willingness to take risks increases and is greater than in other races. That is also what makes the Tour so dangerous: you can fall to the ground through no fault of your own and, in the worst case, be injured and have to retire.
A “hellish pace” right from the start
On Thursday evening we drove from the Palazzo Vecchio through the city, past many cheering fans up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, where the team presentation took place. After all the sitting beforehand, it was actually quite pleasant to ride uphill and move our legs a bit. Each team was led by a young Italian rider. It was nice to see how excited and proud the young guy was – and how happy he was when I gave him my water bottle as a thank you. From the stage you had an impressive view down to Florence with all its landmarks and spectacular buildings.
During training on Friday, the day before the start, it’s all about getting your body moving. My team’s hotel, dsm-firmenich – PostNL, is in an idyllic location about 40 minutes outside the city – which makes training easier, because you can’t really cycle fast in Florence.
The last training session, around an hour and a half long, begins with a warm-up interval. Then follows a “30/30”, as we say. 30 seconds of 80 to 90 percent intensity, then 30 seconds of slowness – all for five minutes. At the end of the session there are two sprints. Our four mountain-experienced riders train for even longer – they have to be really in the swing of things when the tour starts with two difficult stages at the weekend.
I expect that a hellish pace will be set from the start in order to sort out the peloton properly. The teams of the favorites Pogacar and Vingegaard will not give each other any quarter. The four of us, the sprint and classics faction in the team, the “big guys,” want to get through the opening weekend as well as we can. Because we want to be as fresh as possible for the first sprint stage on Monday. I’m ready.
John Degenkolb will be competing in his tenth Tour de France this summer. The experienced Oberursel native has been a professional cyclist since 2011, and his greatest successes were victories in the cycling monuments Paris-Roubaix and Milan-Sanremo in 2015, as well as winning a Tour stage in 2018. The 35-year-old family man rides for the Dutch team dsm-firmenich – PostNL.
