Magnus Cort’s lengthy spell in the Tour de France mountain classification lead has both provided EF Education-EasyPost with a pathway to follow and simultaneously opened up a welcome breathing space for handling expectations, team management say.
After breaking away in his native Denmark, Cort led the mountain classification for over a week prior to ceding the top spot to Simon Geschke (Cofidis) on stage 9.
But even if no longer adding to his considerable polka-dot jersey collection, according to team manager Charly Wegelius, the Dane’s spell as King of the Mountains leader has provided an ideal start for EF Education-EasyPost.
“It’s a good way of setting the tone for the whole group, and it brings you to the high-pressure moments without the feeling we’ve done absolutely nothing for the first 12 days,” Wegelius told Cyclingnews shortly before the Tour began its first rest day.
“There’ll be teams that come out of the Alps and say ‘now we’ve really desperately got to do something’. And we want more than what we’ve done so far, too. But it’s a nice stepping stone.”
Overall, Wegelius said, EF Education-EasyPost was in a good place at the Tour de France so far, even if the abandon of Ruben Guerreiro, a recent winner of the Mont Ventoux Classic, because of injuries marked a definite downside for the team.
“It [Guerreiro’s abandon] is part and parcel of the Tour, and it’s quite sad because today’s stage had his name written all over it. But he had quite a big hit on the first day in Denmark, he was on the road to recovery but it wasn’t really working out. So we’ll move on. He was one of our go-to guys, but that’s part of the game.”
In general, though, Wegelius said “We’re looking very good. On Friday, you could see we did well on the run-in [stage 8] and that was a horse-power run-in, not technical.
“Alberto [Bettiol] is well and truly in the game, Neilson [Powless] is good, Rigoberto [Urán] had a fall but he’s in it.
“I think the heat is going to play a big part as we go forward, but you know how it is in this race, everybody’s got their dreams until the moment they’re stood in the middle of the road. But we’re doing everything we can and we can afford to be optimistic.”
Currently ninth overall and their best-placed rider on GC, Powless has secured the team’s best placing on a stage as well, fourth on the trek across the cobbles to Arenberg where he came within a whisker of taking the yellow jersey to boot.
“He’s got the talent and he’s done the work,” Wegelius…
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