Wednesday, July 3, 2024, 7:35 p.m. | Updated 8:58 p.m.
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Legendary summits always clarify the situation, even if only five stages have been completed, and after Galibier the classification begins to give a nuance to what the future may hold. There are still more than two weeks left, but, for the moment, in the Tour’s general classification there are three cyclists with Spanish registrations in the top ten, each with different circumstances and a completely different role.
Juan Ayuso is in fourth position, 1.10m behind the leader Pogacar, young and with a splendid future ahead of him, but who owes obedience to the yellow jersey, although some attitudes on the ascent to the Alpine giant created some controversy. In the same position is Mikel Landa, seventh, although the cyclist from Alava is a veteran and knows the conditions for which he signed up for Soudal. He knows that he must be alongside Evenepoel. The other on the list, Carlos Rodríguez, sixth in the classification, has the credentials of leader in the powerful Ineos.
On Tuesday, the most striking scene of the Galibier climb was Almeida’s reprimand to Ayuso, at the back of the main peloton, to get to the front and help with his work. The UAE team downplays the issue. The leader, Pogacar, says that nothing happens: “When you go full throttle, even to tell someone that you love them, you have to shout at them,” he said. “There are a lot of people around and gestures to understand each other are normal, but I don’t think Joao is angry about anything. I’m happy with the way we rode,” he says. Matxin also justified Ayuso’s attitude: “What happened is that since there was a headwind, it was better for them to take turns, it was better to save each other and go faster, it was a very intelligent decision.” Ayuso himself downplays the controversy. “Within the team things are calm, there are no problems. It is true that sometimes these gestures are unnecessary, and yesterday they were unnecessary, but oh well, it is what it is.
We are satisfied
Perhaps the cyclist’s youth and ambition make him make mistakes, but as long as Pogacar maintains the pace, they will remain within the team, although Almeida had to see that after saving his strength on the climb, Ayuso managed to finish third in the stage.
Carlos Rodríguez is no longer questioned at Ineos. “It was the first big mountain race of this Tour de France and we are obviously satisfied with the way Carlos met our expectations,” say those in charge of the sports group, where some important riders, such as Tom Pidcock, came to question the Spaniard’s leadership, or at least that is what can be deduced from the Netflix series “Tour de France unchained” that tells the story of the team’s inner workings. “They made me out to be the bad guy,” says the Briton. Of course, he is now 12.23m behind in the classification, and his position loses weight in the face of the accomplished facts. “This stage allowed us to evaluate the weaknesses of the other riders and also see that Pogacar was very strong, as expected. Carlos did a very good job,” they say at Ineos. The cyclist himself distances himself from the conclusions drawn from the series: “Unfortunately they wanted to make it entertaining. Maybe they even took some things out of context to create more audience, but the relationship between Tom and I is good.” And he is satisfied with his performance in the Tour. “I am happy to be here, at the front, with the best. I did not lose much time with my teammates. Day after day I feel better and better, that is the most important thing.”
On a more discreet level, Mikel Landa is doing his job. He is in good form, he knows his team’s plans and supports them: “We are optimistic about what remains,” he says. At the moment he is in the top ten of the Tour.
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2024-07-03 18:58:12
#Spanish #cyclists #hope #Tour
