How to approach the cobblestone stage, this Tuesday, between Lille and Arenberg, Marc Madiot?
“We mustn’t over-dramatize, we must above all avoid falls and punctures. If you have a close-knit team and you avoid them, normally it should be fine. »
Are you in favor of the cobblestones on the Tour de France?
“Every year, maybe not, once in a while, why not? It’s part of the bike. Afterwards, it’s part of the marketing of the race to make it a crucial moment. Only those who encounter a puncture or a fall have problems or delicate situations. If you’re careful and aren’t too clumsy on the bike, you should be able to limit the damage. It is a stage, in general, which is done more on the defensive, for the leaders, rather than on the attack. It gets people talking a lot, that’s the goal of the game.”
Isn’t this the ideal ground for a team like Jumbo-Visma to corner Tadej Pogacar?
“Pogacar is doing very well on the cobbles! He may even be doing better than (Primoz) Roglic or (Jonas) Vingegaard, or even the runners from Ineos. I want to say a draw on that side. Even if, on paper, the Pogacar team seems slightly inferior on these terrains – it may even be better in the mountains – I still think that it has enough to respond to the attacks of each other. , or even to counter them. In addition, on this type of terrain, if you attack and there is an Ineos that goes out with Pogacar, for example, the others are forced to roll behind; and if you have an incident ahead, you find yourself from attacker to pursuer, there is always an instinct for survival, to ensure the blow for a team and for the leaders, in particular, who surround themselves mainly with specialists in this terrain style. The weather also plays a role: the years when there was great damage, these are the years when there was rain. There, a priori, it should be dry. »
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“Not the same psychological approach and a different peloton as for Paris-Roubaix”
What is the difference between Paris-Roubaix and a stage of the Tour de France on cobblestones?
“On Paris-Roubaix, there are first of all more cobblestones and it is a matter for specialists. We come for a day of racing, we have one objective: to be at the finish for the win. When you’re in the Tour, it’s one of the three-week stages, so we don’t have the same psychological approach and we also have a peloton which is totally different, because half of the guys present on the Tour are not on Paris-Roubaix. Maybe even more. So there is necessarily a different approach, higher apprehensions because part of the peloton is not experienced in this type of race. It’s a bit like if you put Formula 1 drivers in a rally car or rally drivers in an F1 on a Grand Prix, there would inevitably be zigzags at times. This is the dilemma of the Tour stage with the cobblestones. »
Will this stage be easier, with less cobblestones than on Paris-Roubaix?
“Already, these are cobblestones in good condition. We don’t do Arenberg, for example. We could, but we don’t. There is still some caution on the part of the organizers regarding the cobblestone stage. It arouses attention, interest, that’s fine, but it doesn’t have to turn out Berezina for everyone either. Spare the goat and the cabbage. »
Can this step cause pschitt?
“It will inevitably excite the world, and the peloton in particular. I read some comments about the first three days in Denmark: you almost have the feeling that, the analysis, that’s all for that, nothing happened. I can guarantee you that in the cars and in the peloton, a lot of things happened: there was tension, there was fear. I discussed with some of my colleagues during the stages in Denmark, at the foot of the buses: whatever the teams, even the biggest ones, there was apprehension, because the concern, in all these stages, it is that one has the impression that one can lose everything at any moment without being able to do anything. This is the problem with these beginnings of the Tour de France: we are set traps, but if we do not have a minimum of success, while doing everything we need next, we can find ourselves out of the game of entry. And there is another phenomenon: we don’t really like going to the hospital from the first days of racing. There, we did not go there, it is very good. Even if sometimes it was a bit boring on the couch, it’s not a big deal. »
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