“We don’t skate!” summarized Cyril Lemoine this Saturday, at the end of the eighth stage of the Tour de France won in the sprint, in Lausanne, by Wout Van Aert, for his second victory on this edition. Between the untenable Belgian, the intractable leader Tadej Pogacar and the well-oiled Jumbo Visma machine, the pace of the Grande Boucle is high this yearconfides the experienced cyclist from Tours.
We see it on the organisms, it starts to pull
“The breakaways are fighting to leave, and behind, it’s a big tempo. On TV, on the sofa, it doesn’t necessarily show (…) we see it on the organizations, it starts to shoot” says Cyril Lemoine, who has not yet had an opportunity to show himself on the roads of the Tour. “Of course we say to ourselves ‘bug, given how it behaves, it’s going to be hard to get out of the game if it continues like this. Afterwards, we are not the only ones in this case. Most teams are in the same situation, except the big armadas.“
The mountain to finally escape the control of the big teams?
Cyril Lemoine and his B&B Hotels KTM team are patiently waiting for their time. The mountains, in particular, where their road captain Pierre Rolland is particularly comfortable. “We try to fight, because it’s the day when we will say ‘today, we stay calm, we do nothing, we rest’ that every time, the breakaway will go to the end. And it must not go there without us. We don’t give up, we are always motivated and in addition we have a very good atmosphere. Between the guys, it’s a good laugh.”