How GC riders should approach a sprint finish towards end of Grand Tour 💨 | Eurosport Cycling

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we’re talking and looking of course at the point the end of this race and the sprinters but one dimension of a Sprint stage is the prominence of the GC teams at the business end of the race naton and the fact that we have the three kilometer rule means that the GC guys have to get their leader within that 3 kilometers at the very front of the race lest anything should happen to them and You’ have a particular method when you’re in the road with uh yonas for example don’t you yeah I always used to go and used to go to the sprinters I used to go right next to matz Peterson in the tour of Fabio yakobson and and and tell them that um if he saw me in in in the preparation towards going to the last three kilometers that I was not there to do a lead out for rout Kristoff laort he was there he was doing the lead out for rout I was just taking care of Yas so I I told I told all the sprinters please give me a little bit of space and then as soon as we are in the last three kilometers we will get out of your way and we will give you space I think that’s that’s a way of yeah a way of communicating with each other and sometimes it sometimes it didn’t it didn’t go as planned or uh it’s it’s bike racing it’s super super chaotic and super hectic but I just found I always thought like why shouldn’t I just tell them and have a conversation with them then then they know and maybe in the back of their minds uh they will they will realize oh it’s Nathan he’s not here to take my place he’s just here to to Pro protect his GC leader and you’re doing that to stay safe and to not lose any unnecessary time if you put yourself into the position of let’s say Jonas is here it’s stage 18 he’s leading by by almost 8 minutes if it’s raining coming towards 3ks you still fight yeah I would be I would be position 60 70 in uh out of out of trouble like where people are not taking any risks anymore because if you’re if you’re so so far in front yeah if you lose a minute there’s there’s no there’s no point there’s no point in taking all these unnecessary unnecessary risks especially when it’s raining because then yeah um all danger can be can can be everywhere so You’ be positioned 60 where coming into the 3 km Mark or what are you talking about I I would say as soon as as soon as the nervousness starts I would uh I would try to back off a little bit and and leave all the sprinters teams do their thing because uh they are they they have Ambitions the this day and uh I assume pach doesn’t have any any ambition today he just wants to get safe safely through today I’d be in position 150 and that’s not just down to my level of talent it’s just like you know you can afford to be off the back because you’re going to be completely out of danger there if he’s got three or four guys around him you leave leave ruy Oliva and Milano to do their Sprint at the front at this point for me it’s just no risk whatsoever you got four days left of this J if you lose a minute from 10ks to go into towards the Finish Line who cares and to be clear we’re talking specifically about that margin that he has at the top of the GC if it was closer in GC you would be working to keep him in a safe position because you can’t afford to lose a minute normally at the stage of a grand here no of course and I’m quite sure we will have we will have Philip oana and Ben Swift leading g into into the last three kilometers that’s that’s something uh yeah we it’s almost textbook inals they always take the lead into inside the last three kilometers just to be safe and they don’t have that luxury right now to um to to sit to sit back and relax because Dany Martinez is just in front and Ben corner is just behind them so they uh they need to be very very careful you mention any graders this is a classic example of what they do so well and ban Swift in particular Robie an excellent um wingman bodyguard for garant Thomas isn’t he he is bringing him into the final 3K to go and even a few days ago we saw from 60 km to go they decided they were going to put the pressure on the the whole Pelon in the Crosswinds so that’s also an equally important job at that period in the race but Ben Swift is always there as the sort of The Bodyguard lead out man into important points on flat stages for Gant Thomas and Nathan said that they’re always there and old habits die hard there just a habitual thing every time it’s that situation there they are and I don’t think today will be any different for the exact reasons that the guys mentioned the the margin on either side of GC for garant Thomas is pretty small so they really need to be there but yeah if I was T Pacha with a nearly 8 minute lead I would be sitting right down the back and and risk losing two minutes on the run in because it just doesn’t matter what sort of power would you have been doing let’s say you went on the front from 4 km to go to three k to go would be would be quite a lot actually um and I always did it to together with somebody else most like in the doer last year I do I would do it with uh with Dylan vanara or in the tour and then we would we would Swap and uh I’m a little bit more explosive so like going really into the last uh last 3K uh I would I would do a big push and it’s it’s easily over 800 watts uh but you need to you really need to make a difference and you really need to to put up the speed because then the pellaton gets stretched out a little bit and that also makes it makes it safer because if the pellon is all like writes like a box then then that’s where it gets dangerous I think that’s where you always have to you know there’s plenty of people that in training they’re really fast twixs they do these amazing Sprint numbers and what I always Tred to point out and Robbie will remember this better than anyone the amount of power you have to do to sit on Wheels like n doing 800 watts before you even start your Sprint you know you’re sort of 450 Watts average for four or five minutes and then you have to launch and have that punch up to the 1900 Watts that Jonathan Manan has yeah I don’t think most of us can get our heads around that talking of this then Natan what have you made of tal Pacha running into the Sprints essentially leading out Milano for one and then trying to be in the mix for another losing Milano off his wheel and because he was near the front quite narrowly avoiding that crash admittedly he didn’t have the margin that he does no but he was still leading by a couple of minutes at that stage yeah I think it was very uh very Noble from him to do a lead out for for Milano it shows he’s a great teammate and he wants to give back and he he has the he has the freedom also to give back in the luxury because he’s the best man in the race and um but actually it hurt my eyes a little bit because I was I was very afraid he would uh he he he would crash and and his jro might be over and it’s not only the jro that might be over it’s it can be the tence and uh whenever whenever he’s on the front pulling and doing a lead out that’s one thing but as soon as you swing off you need to go back back through the bench and they just see a a pink pole in the middle of the road and they like how do I go around it and yeah if it doesn’t move it needs to be moved yeah somebody on this table told me I wonder who um if youas in a similar position wanted to show the same nobility I like that the use of that word would you say yeah go for it I understand your motivation and that’s a great way to get the team behind you or would you say youas come on it’s my job yeah yeah yeah I wouldn’t have I would I would have asked him not to do it but I can remember last year in in the do stage one with Christoff laort one uh we were one man short actually we we didn’t time the breakway very well I was I was finished was finished and there was only yonas left and then he did he did the lead out and he also almost came to a crash yeah and then I was like yeah you never do it again please that’s it you’ve had your fun yeah yeah absolutely and