Vincent Lavenu
"An atypical Tour France"
"The presentation of Tour France is always a special moment. It's nice to see the images from the previous edition first. Then it's exciting to discover the route for the following year.Itwill be an unusual Tour France with a historic start in the city of Florence. The first two days will be tough. I think there are a lot of stages for sprinters. We'll have to keep that in mind. The second part of the route will be very difficult, with summit finishes and then a time trial between Monaco and Nice that could be decisive on the last day. I'm also really looking forward to returning to the roads of the Hautes-Alpes, where I grew up."
Felix Gall
"The last week will be very demanding
"Discovering the Tour France route is an important moment for me and for the team. We will need to analyze it further to get a critical view, but from what I have seen, the last week will be very demanding.
There will be more passes above 2,000 meters than in 2023. This is something to take into account.
We will also have to stay focused until the last day with the difficult final time trial.
I will be happy to return to the roads of Tour France. I will be climbing many legendary ascents for the first time, and that makes me excited.
The news
Felix Gall sportsman of the year in Austria
Felix Gall has been voted Austria's Sportsman of the Year.
He finished ahead of Jakob Schubert (climbing) and Johannes Lamparter (Nordic combined).
The 25-year-old rider finished eighth in Tour France, winning the 17th stage.
22
Key number
The AG2R CITROËN team has won 22 stages of Tour France since its first participation in 1993. It has also finished on the podium three times in the final general classification: Jean-Christophe Péraud came second in 2014, Romain Bardet came second in 2016 and third in 2017.
