“The runners know the issue of this Tour de France”
Before the Tour de France rushes into the north, with a word from the General manager of Cofidis, necessarily a particular feeling?
Yes, a lot of emotion, a lot of excitement and especially the desire to do well with us Home because we are on a fairly exceptional Tour de France. It's a chance to be able start from the most beautiful race in the world in its region, in the garden of Cofidis, with in addition A northern manager. I am from the north of France.We will pass on my land on the First stage of the Tour. So obviously, we can't wait to be on the starting line on Saturday to Finally, go on this 2025 edition.
We all remember that you won in the Basque Country And that you had finally combined the fate. There, again regain an additional step on your Land, would that not be bad?
If you have the contract, I sign, because it would be quite exceptional. Our goal is to win on this Tour de France. So obviously, if it can Operating on the first three stages would be great, it would be memorable. We would come back Definitely in history. Now we are not going to consider that Monday evening, Our chances of victory are over. Far from there, the turn will still be very long. There will be opportunities. In any case, the desire to do well, it is present with us. We know that our Supporters, our fans are on the side of the road. They fully support the Cofidis team. The runners who are here are motivated like never before. They know the issue of this Tour of France.
We were talking about hunting stages, stage victory. If we look at the composition, we are a little surprised anyway because less francized than usual, the presence of Buchmann and the Spaniards, does that mean that we are targeting a top 10 in general?
I believe that Emmanuel Buchmann showed on the Critérium du Dauphiné that he was essential. He is able to follow the best climbers for a very long time. Before Pogacar's gunshots, he is still present. So Emmanuel Buchmann is also our mountain security when the road goes up. We trust those who have already marked their imprint the Tour de France and when we know the path of victory on the Tour de France, we have the ability to return.
How to counter this ultra domination of Tadej Pogacar? We asked the question to Some runners. Isn't he relou Tadej Pogacar to dominate too much?
In fact, we are not going to try to counter it. He is not an opponent for Cofidis. We do not play in the courtyard of the runners who wish to climb on the podium. We're going to let Vingegaard and Evenepoel take care of Pogacar. We will rather bet on stages where these magnificently are a little bit side. We leave a little field to escaped. We slip into escapes and I think that is really how we can find the opening on this Tour de France. Afterwards, we will try to settle for accessites, but we know very well that the first three places in the podium are inaccessible today.
After the Dauphiné, there were some mood jumps on this ultra domination of Pogacar. Arrigant, intense. What do you think?
I think that a runner who dominates, it's always a disturbing runner. That's sure. In the history of cycling, we always prefer number 2 to number 1. We must see the popularity of Raymond Poulidor. It was exceptional. And then, we jealous a little more Jacques Anquetil. I think Pogacar, of course, is a superman. I think that today it does not make a complex. He takes pleasure. He also concludes the work of his team. We know that his team belongs to Abu Dhabi and the mentality in Saudi countries is to do everything to the maximum, to be very good and to be excellence. I think he cannot ask him to brake.
Our columnist Cyrille Guimard, that you know well, we told us during his last column that if Pogacar had to Winning ten stages would be the death of cycling.
So if The druid Say true, it will be the death of cycling, because I tell you that Pogacar will win even before Toulouse. It is certain, I really see him being able. It would mean that we are in a category that has nothing to do with professionalism. I think we all push excellence. We work meticulously with performance, with our partners, etc. And I think that going to win two, three stages is in the field of feasible. Winning ten stages out of 21, it would be dramatic, of course.
Always the same question. A successful tour for Cofidis in 2025, what would that be? Is it a stage victory?
Then, aggressive, offensive, combative behavior. I think all of that are values that we want to see in runners who wear the red and yellow jersey. But now, I think that without a stage victory, we can say that we have not achieved our goal. Our goal is really a stage victory. We want to see a Cofidis runner raising our arms because it creates emotion, because it rewards the work of a whole staff, a whole team. And we're here to win. In fact, we are not there to participate in the Tour de France which leaves from Lille. We are here to win.
