Cycling: Rolling the dice to try to win stages in the last week of the Tour de France

The second day of rest marked the Tour and scored two weeks late with a week to play

Our Let's Go-Scott team spent this vital marker in the area of ​​the United States. Aude in the south of France. Our hotel for the two night stay, though with three other teams, was far from any action, nestled among the hilly wineries that scatter the landscape of this incredibly beautiful part of France – the only one in the world. perfect environment to gather before we go In the last week

With everyone rested and relaxed it was a day to reflect on our Tour up to now, accept that things are not going to happen. Were not yet unfolded for us and then look collectively toward a stage victory over the last week

The first two weeks gave our team only battles, but our Main battle was to believe that we can win a stage victory last week. It is amazing that, although the Tour de France is long and difficult, when you get to this point of the race, you accumulate the opportunities left against your remaining resources and the possibilities do not always seem too abundant.

It's no secret that the Sky team seems to have had a stop on the run since they've taken the lead on the first mountain stage and since when do not have the air of the fault.

Most of the talk around them now seems to be how they will handle the situation by ranking first and second overall with Geraint Thomas leading and Chris Froome at 1:39. Naturally, the message coming from the Sky team seems to be that it's not important to know who wins as long as it's a Sky driver.

I took a brief look at the history books and tells a recurring story of teams. In similar situations, the camaraderie collapsed and the teams said that it would never happen.

In most cases, one of the riders still won the race, but you can almost be certain that things will never be the same. There was the Wiggins vs. Froome rivalry in 2012 when Froome was clearly climbing better although the team backed Wiggins for the win.

In the 2009 Astana team, there was the battle of Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador. In 1986, the teammate of Greg Lemond, the French legend Bernard Hinault and the winner of the Tour the previous year, try to stick to Lemond and the two meet up in Paris where Lemond wins his first of three yellow jerseys of the Tour de France

Already in the 1940s, the rising Italian star Fausto Coppi surpassed the then Italian hero, Gino Bartali, to launch one of the greatest rivalries of Italian cycling. Whatever it is for Sky this week, he will need careful management and will ensure much of the final, with Tom Dumoulin always at hand and always stronger. There is still a lot of excitement waiting to be put in the water.

Dumoulin is also the world champion against the clock, so the two Sky drivers will no longer want to lose time before next Saturday's time trial.

The edition has been particularly difficult so far and this will weigh down the pressure on everyone in the last week.

I'm not sure I've ever experienced a Tour de France as hard. It is generally accepted that the Tour de France, although more prestigious than the other Grand Tours, the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro d'Italia, is normally easier with less climbing and a more traditional balance between climbing, sprint and middle mountain. 19659002] However, this year's Tour seems to have resisted this theory. I do not remember having so many runners eliminated by missed timeouts; runners jumping half-way and non-climbers having to dig to the bottom of their determination to finish just the stages.

He made a lot of guys very nervous and the grupetto which is the collective group containing the sprinters that normally form in the backend of the race on the mountain stages is non-existent as each rider fights to think only about the riders. ;to himself.

We spent the day discussing our options and with difficult days in the Pyrenees we still have some excellent options. . Our workers will have to be there to make sure our climbing specialists, Adam Yates and Mikel Nieve, can do the right thing and then it will be the game.

We have no doubt that they can win a stage and we come We must use our balls wisely so that they are in the good breakaway for the win. Julian Dean is a former professional cyclist and manager of Let's Scott.