Vincent Lavenu
«An atypical Tour de France»
«The presentation of the Tour de France is always a special moment. It is enjoyable to see the images from the previous edition first. Then it is exciting to discover the route for the following year. It will be an unusual Tour de 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 designed for sprinters. We'll have to keep that in mind. The second part of the course 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 will also be delighted to return to the roads of the Hautes-Alpes, where I grew up.»
Felix Gall
«The last week will be very demanding.»
«Discovering the Tour de France route is an important moment for me and for the team. We will need to analyse it further to get a critical view, but from what I have seen, the last week will be very demanding.
There will be more traffic above 2,000 metres than in 2023. This is something to bear in mind.
It will also be necessary to remain focused until the final day with the challenging final time trial.
I'm looking forward to returning to the roads of the Tour de France. I'll be climbing many legendary ascents for the first time again, and that makes me excited.»
The information
Felix Gall named Austria's Sportsman of the Year
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 Austrian cyclist finished eighth in the Tour de France, with a victory in the 17th stage.
22
The figure
The AG2R CITROËN team has won 22 stages of the Tour de 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.
