Ever wondered what goes on before the Tour de France? I don’t mean the days leading up to the grandest of the grand tours — I mean the months before. The period of the year when the Grand Boucle looms largest, where riders are fine-tuning performance and prepping for the three weeks of July’s French action.
Luckily, a phone call from Cofidis’ bike sponsor, Look, came through with an offer for us to join the team at their pre-Tour altitude camp in the French Alps, to let us understand a little better what exactly goes into prepping for Le Tour.
We joined the team’s riders who were down on the short list for the Tour. Buchmann, Izagirre and Teuns were all on hand, amongst other staying in a pretty swanky, but still humble apartment at the ski resort of Tinges le Lac. At 2,100m above sea level, it was the perfect location for a bit of altitude training and a hideaway from the hectic life of modern living. A place where they could knuckle down, get the kilometers in and focus on the job at hand: training, resting, and eating.
I spent 36 hours with the team to see what the selected riders would be doing for the three weeks they were at the camp.
Cheers,
Dave