“The September Tour de France”, Milan-San Remo contested in August, the Tour of Spain wrapped up by candlelight in November, cycling has, in 2020, with great solidarity and application, put in place the measures allowing it to deliver spectacular, stunning, unprecedented races.
A concentrate of emotions in a few months.
The year 2021 is about to start again.
Swollen with hopes, consumed by uncertainties.
The races scheduled for January in Australia or Argentina could not be contested.
As in 2020, the Tour de Normandie (scheduled from March 22 to 28) and the Circuit de la Sarthe (scheduled from April 6 to 9) will not take place (the Tour of Andalusia has been postponed), recalling the extreme fragility in which the organizers find themselves.The peloton, after having swallowed the courses surrounded by strict sanitary measures, will resume competition in France during the Grand Prix la Marseillaise, on January 31.
First stage of a season which will be one of all challenges.
On the road.
And behind the scenes to carry out the hoped-for races.
And strive for the Tour de France (June 26-July 18, from Brest).
Tadej Pogacar, the surprise yellow jersey of a stunning Grand Boucle, which will start at the Tour of the United Arab Emirates on February 21, already has the Tour in mind: “I realize that confirming is much more difficult than winning the first time.
But I am training my best for it.
"And the Slovenian (22) to reveal to have programmed specific training sessions to improve" his position on the time trial bike ".
The one who fears nothing, and no one, assures for the rest that he does not want to change anything: "They stop me in the street for photos, I have more obligations, requests from the media, but I try not to stress and live as before.
It's a relief to have won the biggest race in the world.
I am more relaxed, but I want to continue.
I look forward.
I will fight to be on the top step, from the first to the last race.
"
Froome under reconstruction
On the road to his ambitions, he will find his compatriot Primoz Roglic who saw his dream of the Tour de France dissolve in the laces of La Planche des Belles Filles within 24 hours of the parade on the Champs-Élysées, before rebounding in winning in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, then in the Tour of Spain.
Contact case, the Slovenian was not in Alicante, for the training course of a Dutch team Jumbo-Visma which hinted that it would align a formidable formation to satisfy its designs on the Tour de France.
However, she will have to compose without Tom Dumoulin.
The 7th of the last Tour, mentally worn out, brutally, and for an indefinite period, indicated that his career was put on hold, he who after more than 400 days without a race (between a left knee injury and the start of the 2020 season upset by the Covid-19) had patiently returned to center stage.
"It's as if a hundred kilogram backpack had vanished from my shoulders," admitted the relieved Dutchman. Man of challenges, Christopher Froome (Israel Start-Up Nation), still in the reconstruction phase after a serious fall in June 2019, ensures running after a fifth victory on the Tour: “Winning at my age and, coming back from injury, that's what motivates me.
The way nutrition has evolved, the way sport evolved… It is certainly possible for athletes to prolong later and later, I would like to prove it.
I can't wait to race against Tadej and my old teammates.
The Tour route is fantastic - there is a good balance between the big top finishes and the two time trials, ”he told the BBC.
His former team, Ineos (biggest budget of the peloton, more than 40 million euros), which, in extremis, was able to console itself in 2020 with the Giro d'Italia victorious by the unexpected British Tao Geoghegan Hart, will leave in reconquest.
In particular with the Colombian Egan Bernal (24 years old), winner of the Tour de France 2019, injured and forced to retire last September.
Van der Poel on the Tour
A Tour which will see Mathieu Van der Poel begin.
The Dutch prodigy (26 years old), grandson of Raymond Poulidor, as comfortable on the muddy paths of cyclo-cross as on the uneven mountain biking or the road classics (winner of the Amstel Gold Race in 2019, of the Tour of Flanders 2020), will be eagerly awaited.
Another member of this talented new wave, the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, is for the moment a question mark.
Victim of a vertiginous fall during the Tour of Lombardy, after hitting a parapet, the Belgian who was aiming for the Tour of Italy must take his troubles patiently, hoping to be able to resume training on February 8 within a Deceuninck team -Quick Step, driven by world champion Julian Alaphilippe, who records the returns of sprinters Mark Cavendish, at the twilight of his career, and Fabian Jokobsen, victim of a terrible fall on August 5, during the 1st stage of the Tour de Poland.
After the nightmare experienced in recent months, the Dutch sprinter assures us: “It's coming back slowly.
I still have a long way to go, but I feel once again in the shoes of a professional runner… ”This year will mark the return of Paris-Roubaix (April 11), the only monument that has not been able to compete in 2020 , which will experience its first female edition.
“We know that the first races will be held without an audience.
We hope that it will return to normal soon.
We know that people are waiting to see sport on television, if we can provide them with small pleasures during this period, that's good, ”summarizes Warren Barguil, the leader of the Arkéa-Samsic team.
In parallel with the first races, the election to the presidency of the French Federation will see, on February 27, Cyrille Guimard, the former runner and sports director turned consultant (unsuccessful candidate in 2009), stand up against Michel Callot, the president outgoing.
Illustration of challenges on all terrains ...
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