Hailing from Hennebont in the Breton cycling heartland, Warren Barguil would have heard all of the clichés about how the Tour de France is different to other races long before he ever turned professional. Even armed with all that forewarning, after making his debut in 2015, the youngster could offer his own confirmation: all is true.
“It changed me both physically and mentally: the Tour is the toughest race I’ve ever done,” Barguil told Cyclingnews at the Giant-Alpecin team presentation in Berlin on Thursday. “It’s gruelling for three weeks solid, with the pressure of the media and all the public around it, and the speed of the race. It’s completely from other races, even from other Grand Tours.”
Lying in the top ten overall as the Tour entered its final week, Barguil grew accustomed to providing a daily debrief to the home press as he warmed down on the rollers after each stage. The youngster would learn quickly that the fall-out of every act is amplified on Planet Tour but he appeared to adapt readily to his lot.
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“I just enjoyed being at my first Tour, it was a pleasure. I had no pressure on my shoulders, I was there to do what I love, and in the end it went well,” said Barguil, who would go on to reach Paris a creditable 14th overall, though he maintains he might have cracked the top ten were it not for the lingering effects his own crash on stage 10.
“It’s certainly true that the crash hampered my chances. It would have been nice to have been in the top ten, but I was really there to learn.”
If the 2015 Tour was couched as a learning experience, Barguil will line up this July with undisguised ambition and with greater expectation from his team. Marcel Kittel’s departure to Etixx-QuickStep – allied to Barguil and Tom Dumoulin’s ongoing development – has led to a change of emphasis at Giant-Alpecin.
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