Has Team Ineos learned any lessons after the first ride through the Pyrenees? “That the race is going quite fast,” laughs the sports director. “Of course the race has not yet run, but we now know better where everyone is. And we know the Jumbo-Visma tactics better after sacrificing Tom Dumoulin. “
“We had already seen that Dumoulin was not yet at his best level. He is now at two minutes. That is the end of the story for the classification. We think they wanted to try this stage for the yellow. sweater. And save time. But that didn’t work out in the end. That’s fine for us. “
What about his own squad? “Egan Bernal is good. He is certainly as good as last year, maybe better. Last year he also had a hard time with the first mountains in the first week. But he got better during the Tour, or the rest got a bit better. less.”
“Even now we hope for a peak in the 3rd week, but you cannot predict that in the race. It is especially important for us that he can now follow the best and that he can make the difference a few more times. are very satisfied. He has not lost any time and a number of other classification riders have already dropped out. “
Ineos sent Carapaz after Pogacar on the Peyresourde. Was that the right tactic? “I wasn’t in the first car, but at some point everyone is looking at each other. So you can keep making Roglic nervous, but if everyone keeps their feet stiff, then Pogacar will take all his time from yesterday. There is no one there. something with it. “
Our helpers? “In terms of pure climbers, we don’t really have a big arsenal. We have the riders who are very good in the mid-mountain range, such as Kwiatkowski, Van Baarle and Castroviejo. But we miss Sivakov very much. He’s on the way back. Hopefully. he will be able to assist Egan Bernal again next week. “
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