Tuesday was a TT day on the Volta a Catalunya. Without any specialist within his squad in Spain, the Groupama-FDJ cycling team mainly focused on getting through the stage without any issue. Still, Attila Valter was able to put on a promising performance (33rd). The whole team is now fully focused on the next, mountain stages, including the summit finish at Vallter 2000 tomorrow.
“Attila wanted to prove that yesterday was just an accident”, Philippe Mauduit
The time trial in Banyoles on Tuesday was set to be the first test for the GC contenders on the Volta a Catalunya. Within the Groupama-FDJ team, only Sébastien Reichenbach could be interested in that regard. “Since he finished inside the right group yesterday, he had to give his best in this time trial,” said Philippe Mauduit. “This is not his main quality for sure, but for his first one of the season, it was okay.” The Swiss rider ended up losing less than two minutes to the day’s winner Rohan Dennis, and now is 1’20 away from the new leader Joao Almeida in GC. The briefing was quite straightforward for the rest of the team. “Since we had no specialists, the instructions were to be careful, focused but not to take risks and to save a little energy for the coming days”, added Philippe. The message was received and understood, but Attila Valter still stood out with a promising performance placing him in 33rd at the finish, surrounding some GC favourites.
“Yesterday evening, I had an individual debriefing with each of the riders, including Attila”, told Philippe. “Today, he also wanted to prove that yesterday was just a mishap, and that we could count on him. With him, I emphasised on the technical aspect before and during the race, as I had noticed in the UAE Tour’s time trial that there was a lot to work on from that point of view. I asked him not to focus too much on the performance but rather on the technical aspect of the discipline. On the finish line, he actually set quite a decent time. Being just outside the top 30 in a WorldTour race with that field, it also confirms he has qualities. He could have gained a bit more time by doing it at 100% like he was playing the GC, but that was not the goal.” The young Hungarian could also notice his good condition, and like the rest of the team, he can now head towards the next – mountainous – stages including that of … Vallter 2000, tomorrow.
“It will be interesting to see where they stand against the best”, Philippe Mauduit
“On these stages, there are always A, B and C plans,” added Philippe. “We know the riders won’t have an easy day as there are 150 kilometers of false flat before the final climb. This stage will require some energy. Going into a 4-man breakaway would not be really useful, especially that we can think the favourites will go for the win. For a break to succeed, we would need a big fight at the start of the race and a group of ten in front without dangerous guys. We’ll have several plans and we’ll decide which one to choose depending on the situation. Anyway, if the peloton is all together at the bottom of the climb, I will ask the climbers to hang on because we need to know how far they can go in the mountains. We haven’t really had a chance to see that yet. It will be interesting for the team, but also for them, to see where they stand against the best on a real climb. For the team, there are real stakes in this stage”.
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