“How do you approach your first Tour de France? Are you impatient, anxious?
It’s impatience because the legs have been quite present lately so I want to discover the level of the Tour de France. I was always told that it was another dimension and an exceptional level. I can’t wait to find out and see where I can place myself, see if I can get to the front and be a part of the race. We are on the Tour de France which I have been watching for years on TV, being there is already beautiful!
The last three stages are marked on your training routes.
It’s always nice to know where exactly you put the wheels. There will also be people I know, that’s a little extra motivation.
Was the timing of the last stage worked on specifically?
I recognized him once, after that I know the roads almost by heart. It is always an objective to do a good time, especially on roads that I know and in the third week, to see how I will be positioned at that time.
In the first week, will it already be possible to join in the fight?
It’s hard to say now, we don’t know what level there will be, what level I will have. I will try to fight from the start, try to run as if it were a race with no future, being at least moderate, but try to really seize the opportunities if they present themselves. On the one hand, they say it lasts three weeks but it also goes by very quickly, you have to try to take everything there is to take.
“Carelessness is what allows us to appreciate the first Grande Boucle even more, the best way to express ourselves 100%”
Do you measure how far you have come since you started?
Of course. It’s the race that really made me love cycling. It’s quite special. After that, I’m not 100% into it yet, I don’t really realize it yet. When I was younger, in Normandy, the stage I attended that had the biggest impact on me was the Mont Saint-Michel time trial (in 2013). It wasn’t far from home, with riders who were completely raging themselves. It was quite impressive.
You said to yourself: one day I will be there?
We say to ourselves, I don’t know if I’ll be as stupid as them! But in the end I am.
With the two time trials, what can we expect from you in the general classification?
I will rather aim for the stages, have fun and be at the front. I won’t worry about the general ranking. I will try to do very good time trials, not thinking about the general classification.
You have carte blanche. Do you like it?
This is the speech that, for me, resonates best. As several veterans have told me, carefreeness is what allows us to appreciate the first Grande Boucle even more, the best way to express ourselves 100%. »
