The second day of rest of the Tour de France is a new opportunity to take stock of the rankings after two weeks of racing. And even if he had said he did not play the general classification, Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B & B Hotels) is still in 5th place and is in the race for the final podium. During this day of rest, the new darling of the French public gave a press conference with its sports director, Didier Rousbefore this last decisive week.
How do you approach this last week?
As I have already said in recent days, it's a really positive assessment. Whether in the way of doing things or in the results, sometimes we have the way of doing but not always the estedé result. For the moment we have done very well and the results are there so we are on a good momentum. If tomorrow I do scrapetto, the turn will already be successful, you have to take what there is to take, now it's bonus. We are in good position, but it is still completely discovery. We know that in a week, it will happen so many things, illnesses, less good blows, all that, so we do not put ourselves to pressure. We are fifth general at the end of the second day of rest. It's already just exceptional. We're going to fight as we have been fighting for two weeks. And if it works, so much the better, if it doesn't work, too bad, but we don't have everything to put in the trash.
Kevin, you say about discovery. Can you tell me about what you feel on the bike when you have to fight with the cador, with the three stages you had?
Me, I just have a sore legs. I just say to myself: make your effort and go after yourself. As was the case a few years ago or even this year, on less level races like in Bessèges, like in Pays de la Loire Tour, it was like that. There, it's just that we are just a notch above and I just have to fight. I do in relation to the level of the day and we see where we are. Rather, we do the accounts at the end of the race. They say: “It is true that I was with this person or this runner”. It is true that it is still a very beautiful record, but each year is a different year, every day is a different day.
It's a story, Kevin, you talked about this internship with Ewen. Can you tell us a little bit what happened?
We got out of Breton races rather well having the perspective of preparing the French championship as best as possible and the start of the Tour de France. And with Ewen, we decided to do an internship close to the house, in Isola 2000. And in fact, we simply really fired up. Every day, we were more demanding towards ourselves and the other, in fact. And we just tried to do everything with all the means we had. We had a very good internship. We had our loved ones who were able to come, friends, our friends. It also allowed us to have an internship that went very well. It was a three -week point where we worked well, but even before, we worked very well with us. Throughout the year, we work. Every day, we went to roll with the optics of the Tour de France, with the optics of saying: it will be very hard. I had said: Be careful, in Tour de Switzerland, you can be completely glued. Fortunately it was the opposite.
Can you talk about Mount Ventoux looming?
I listen to my teammates, notably Cristian Rodriguez, who knows him very well, because I have never done it, whether training or in the race. So it's going to be both a discovery. But tomorrow, it's simple. I think there is a wind of planned anyway, but it will be a one hour time trial.
The top 5 is the goal or are we aiming better?
As I said, the goal is above all to surpass myself. We see that for the moment, in the mountains, I am not in the top 5 of the best. But as Didier said, it's a three -week race and it's three weeks that you have to be good. And for now, I'm fifth because I have tried to win steps at first and I have always been placed. We will see in the third week how I will react because it is a total discovery.
If you were told before the Tour de France begins all that, you would have believed there?
We all dream of doing results, fighting with the best. When I was younger and I watched the tour, I dreamed of one day being in this group of 5-10 best, to see the effort it is. And there already I manage to do it, it is exceptional so I would not have imagined it.
Is it not a frustration to play the general classification, which sometimes prevents from winning steps?
A frustration because it is sure that I have less my card but I really take what I do to play, we play the bike. If we take ourselves too seriously, we are just to do a job and I do not want to do a job I want to be happy, we attacked, we gave ourselves 100 % and it is sure that having this place I have less my card but the stage victory, I already have one. Me this box has already been checked.
Do you see the inscriptions on the road, the signs?
Yeah I see them, I am not yet blind, but soon deaf … I see them, I make them coucous and they are even crazier. Still after Hautacam, I had the beginnings of tinnitus because it yelly so much, they were so thoroughly and it pushes me too.
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