There are solely three levels left within the 2024 Tour de France, and of the 5 riders at the moment mendacity highest on GC, veteran Soudal-QuickStep racer Mikel Landa is maybe the one which surprises essentially the most.
While the Basque star, fifth general at 13:24 behind chief Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), confirmed on Thursday that he’s doing a lot better than he anticipated, he additionally insisted, maybe surprisingly, that his 2024 Tour type is not so good as it has been in earlier July editions.
“I’m doing properly, I’m having fun with it, and I’m properly up there,” he advised a small group of reporters earlier than stage 18. “But I got here right here with the concept of simply serving to Remco. However, little by little I acquired up there within the GC and my present putting is best now than I anticipated.”
Fourth within the 2017 Tour de France, he got here inside a whisker of creating the rostrum however was pipped to the publish within the closing time trial by Romain Bardet. Landa insisted that regardless of at the moment being in such hallowed firm as Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) within the prime 5 at the moment, to not point out his personal teammate Evenepoel in third, “this isn’t actually my finest Tour. I got here to different Tours in higher form”.
“2017 was good, however so had been 2018 and 2019, too if you happen to don’t choose all of it on the outcomes. Back then I used to be extra bold, I used to be extra within the combat for the race, I attacked extra too,” he defined.
“This yr,” he added a shade ruefully, “all I’m doing is chasing down the others.”
Landa was happy, all the identical, given the present record-breaking common velocity of the Tour, and the far more aggressive type of Grand Tour racing normally, which has induced a lot of his contemporaries to quietly shelve the concept of combating for the general. And for all he’s now 34, Landa nonetheless stays within the GC fray, whereas nonetheless holding down a key workforce function as Remco’s key lieutenant for the climbing levels.
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“That’s true, the years go by and I’m nonetheless up there,” Landa recognised, “near the highest names.”
As for the way he views Soudal-QuickStep’s technique for the previous couple of days of the Tour, with two monumental mountain levels and a really powerful closing time trial nonetheless to come back.
“So much will rely on how UAE Team Emirates and Visma choose to play the race, and we’ll need to react to that,” he mentioned. “We have to remain shut, be watchful and if Vingegaard has a nasty day or makes a mistake, attempt to take advantage of it to place Remco up a step on the rostrum.”
Stage 19 features a uncommon ascent to 2,800 metres above sea stage on the summit of the Bonette-Restefond, a peak solely often reached by the Tour and the ‘ceiling’ of this yr’s race.
“We do numerous altitude coaching as of late so a lot of the riders are pretty used to these sorts of heights. But for certain that’ll do some harm, too, identical to once we went over the Galibier on stage 4,” Landa recognised, noting one other Alpine monster climb which peaked out at 2,642 metres above sea stage within the first week.
Priority with Evenepoel
Landa’s glorious place general may current Soudal-QuickStep with one thing of a GC dilemma concerning whether or not they are going to defend his place within the dying days of the Tour in addition to focussing on Evenepoel. But the Basque says that whereas his fifth place is a valued asset for the Belgian squad, Evenepoel’s podium battle logically takes priority.
“My precedence is to assist Remco, and check out to make sure he finishes as excessive as attainable on the rostrum. But I’m serious about that fourth place too, and I’ll attempt to end as shut as I can to it in Nice.
“Rather than the climbs, the important thing day for Remco may properly be the [stage 21] time trial. However, he may get a while again then, too, so the nearer he’s to Vingegaard beforehand, the higher.”
Landa has been and nonetheless is a massively necessary a part of the Soudal-QuickStep line-up on this yr’s Tour, significantly within the two powerful climbing levels to come back. But such is Evenepoel’s quickness to study that Landa says one other function he previously had, that of giving Remco recommendation on Grand Tour technique, is changing into more and more irrelevant.
“The race itself is educating him about find out how to deal with his power and calculate what to do,” Landa mentioned. “I feel the race is educating him greater than I may do.”
Landa’s personal unfettered GC choices, in any case, will come within the Vuelta a España – which Evenepoel shouldn’t be racing – and unsurprisingly given his glorious Tour de France to this point, Landa is more and more optimistic.
“I feel it’ll be race for me,” he mentioned. “From what I can see right here within the Tour, I’m going to get there in good condition.”
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