Second rest day in the Tour

Second rest day in the Tour

Alejandro spoke to the media

On the occasion of the second rest day of the Tour that Movistar Team riders spent in Avignon, Alejandro spoke to the media present at the hotel after they had a one hour and a half ride.

“I wasn’t as lucky as I had expected to be in this race, but we still have reasons to be happy”, told Alejandro. “There’s Nairo, up-front in the race – he’s looking good and has a week full of mountains in front of him to shine; if you look at the profiles and the climbs, it’s the hardest in this year’s Tour. The goal for the remainder of the race is winning a stage, but we know Nairo has a podium place at reach. Claiming it would be really important for the team, and of course, I’d like to win a stage. Although I don’t care about which stage should I win, Alpe d’Huez might be an appropiate goal – the beginning of the stage is hard, those riders wanting to enter the break must be strong, and we might stand a chance.

“Yesterday we could see Nairo is super strong in the mountains: he launched his attack with 15k to go and almost managed to stay with Froome until the end, but we saw that he doesn’t only want to lead the race – he also wants to win almost every single mountain-top finish. Our toughest rival to date? Well, maybe. Wiggins was unbeatable last year, too. Froome is playing Wiggins’ role this season; he wins wherever he goes.

“As long as we haven’t got to Paris, or until Saturday at least, we can’t say the Tour is over. For the time being, Froome is showing to be the strongest rider on course, but this week ahead, even being the strongest, can make a bad day become a true fail and lose a lot of time. But truth said, it’s really hard to beat him at the moment.

“The Vuelta? For the moment, we have to stay focused on the Tour – there will be time to rest and go for it after that. It was on my calendar already before the Tour, and it’s still in. There’s still a week ahead and I’m feeling strong, so there shouldn’t be any troubles to ride. But I won’t be saving any energy in this Tour. We’re in a great position to get one of us into the podium, and we can’t miss it. Let’s finish this year’s Tour and we will see if we take part in this race in the next few years”.

Download the PDF to listen to Alejandro’s quotes (in Spanish).

(Press release: Movistar Team)