Tadej, along with his UAE Team Emirates – XRG team, spent a peaceful first rest day at the Tour in Toulouse. »Everything went well, we had a pleasant bike ride, during which we also stopped for coffee. This was followed by a hamburger lunch, now we’ve visited the barber, a nap, massage, dinner, and tomorrow we’re back on the race. It all went by quickly,« said Tadej.
In the opening week of the 112th Tour de France, he celebrated two stage victories and also wore the yellow jersey, which he handed over to Ben Healy (EF Education Easy Post) in the 10th stage in the Central Massif.
»Yesterday, I was very happy with the hilly stage, the first nine days were very hectic and nervous. We expected this and I’m glad we survived. João Almeida didn’t, but here we are, now our terrain is coming, the mountain stages are coming, there will be less stress. Overall, it was a very good week, except for losing João, that was the only big blow for us. Otherwise, we are in a good position in the overall standings and ready to attack the mountains,« Tadej assessed the situation in the race.
In the overall standings, he is 29 seconds behind Healy in 2nd place, followed by Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick Step) one minute behind and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease a Bike), who is 1:17 behind Tadej.
»João showed true fighting spirit in the last two days on the bike, I can’t imagine what it’s like to ride with a broken rib and other injuries. I’m sad he had to leave, we had a nice group, a very good atmosphere, he was looking forward to the remaining two weeks and defending the yellow jersey. We lost that yesterday, but it’s not as big deal, we’re close to it. Other rivals are behind us and will have to attack. We’ll see if Ben will have the yellow jersey for a few more stages, he’s spent a lot of time in breakaways and I hope he’s already tired. So, in the next stages, we’ll already be fighting for the yellow jersey. Not tomorrow, but on Hautacam, in the time trial on Peyragudes, and on Superbagneres, there will be three beautiful days for climbing,« continued Tadej, who expects a short second week after the long first one.
»I expect a fast week, the first was extended by one day, the second will be one day shorter because of that. In between, there’s a time trial, so everything will go by very quickly. This week can already be quite decisive, the second week is usually reserved for medium-difficulty mountain stages, more suitable for breakaways, maybe even some harder mountain stage, but this year it’s almost as tough as the last week. In the coming days, we’ll probably see quite big differences in the overall standings. I feel it will be an interesting week, I’m looking forward to Hautacam and the time trial in Peyragudes. I’m looking forward to these two stages, and then the third week will almost be here,« Tadej is excited about the Pyrenean challenges.
He expects to have a challenging task on them, as the competition at the Tour is at the highest level. »The level is extremely high, nine stages were short, explosive, nervous, stressful, all teams have shown they can ride at the front and fight. In the 10th stage, we had the first tough day, which was difficult to control, our team performed very well despite the absence of João and Pavel Sivakov’s health issues. We’ve already seen a bit of where everyone stands on the climbs, but I think we’ll only see the true balance of power among the contenders for the top of the overall standings in the second week. The competition is very strong, a huge battle awaits us for the podium and the yellow jersey,« said Tadej. If everything goes according to his plans, he will win the yellow jersey for the fourth time in Paris on July 27.