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La Roche-sur-Yon – The excitement is commensurate with the promise: the French cycling, so long in retreat, this year in the Tour a candidate declared in the yellow jersey, in the person of Romain Bardet.
" Confidence and Humility ". Vincent Lavenu, the boss of the AG2R La Mondiale team, is keen on this double sign, proof of the ambition of his charismatic leader and the attitude to be observed in order to put an end to a very long thirty-three-year-old parenthesis. . The last French victory, signed Bernard Hinault, goes back to 1985!
" Romain finished second and third, it is legitimate that he is ambitious ", supports the head of the French formation. " We did a lot of work, we do not refrain from anything, Romain has a very good season and the team has strengthened, but Sky remains the favorite with Froome and a very powerful group ".
" They come to win with Froome if possible but they also have other options ", says Bardet who notes " a really impressive leader density in the pack of the Tour 2018 ] ". But the Frenchman, who already has five Tour experiences at the age of 27 (and no abandonment), has badets with, in support, Pierre Latour.
– " He does not bow his wings " –
" It's a Tour that suits him very well ", badyzes former champion Charly Mottet. " On the condition of getting out of Roubaix (9th stage) without a glitch, then everything suits him, even the last time-trial that will be decisive." Do not forget that he was 5th in the qualifying time. Megeve in 2016 … He does not bow his wings in the third week ".
The Auvergnat expects to experience difficult times. " We are human, so there are not twenty-one days when we have great legs in the Tour, we have to hang on, think about the next day, think about the work that was done. upstream "he says. A watchword: to hold good in adversity. " When I start having sore legs, I tell myself that everyone has sore legs ".
" I am supported on the Tour and it is a source of motivation but I do not let myself be drunk ," says Bardet. " Being in contact, at 15, 20 or 30 seconds, that's where we start, focusing on the yellow jersey, it's fooling me in combat ".
Others, in the squad of French riders, have the right to think of the emblematic jersey of the Tour. Arnaud Démare, if the Picard of Groupama-FDJ manages to win the other sprinters early in the Tour, before the team time trial seals Monday a first hierarchy. Or Julian Alaphilippe, for the benefit of one of the climbs of the first week. He is already a favorite on Thursday in Mûr-de-Bretagne.
– Barguil goes fishing! –
Many are dreaming of favorable circumstances to win a stage. The plain suits Christophe Laporte, inducted leader of the team Cofidis who expects a success in the Tour for ten years. The more hilly terrain to Lilian Calmejane, credited on behalf of the Direct Energie training of one of the five French stage victories last year, or Rudy Molard and Arthur Vichot. The mountain to Guillaume Martin and, of course, Warren Barguil, euphoric in the Tour 2017.
The Breton, spent at Fortuneo-Samsic, is aware that " it will be difficult to do as well as the year pbaded ", two stages and the ranking of the mountain in Paris. It is modeled on the canvas of last summer and gives itself ten days " quiet " until the Alps. " I am not aiming at the general ", insists Barguil (26) who announces aiming " a stage victory in the mountains ".
To prepare to withstand the pressure of the Tour, the Morbihannais, one of the big potential of the pack, unveiled his recipe: " I went fishing! "
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