Competition for one of the nine spots in Team Sky’s Tour de France line-up is notoriously fierce, but there can be few better ways to underline your credentials than winning atop Alpe d’Huez. Having been told at the start of the Critérium du Dauphiné that his chances were “fifty-fifty,” Peter Kennaugh hopes his performance on the penultimate stage of the race has sent a message to the selectors.
Kennaugh, having been in the breakaway, won solo atop the famous mountain, which was scaled this time via the lesser-known Col de Sarenne, rather than the iconic 21 hairpins. He dropped his last breakaway companion, compatriot and good friend Ben Swift, with around three kilometres go to seal his first victory in 16 months.
“This can only help my chances for the Tour,” Kennaugh said in his winner’s press conference in Alpe d’Huez’s Palais des Sports.
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“I’d love to be there. If I’m not then I’m not, and I’ll take a break after the Nationals, and prepare for the Vuelta [a España]. But I’ve tried my best. I always come into good form in June and July, and I just hope the team can take confidence in that.”
Kennaugh, 27 and in his eighth season with Sky, has had a turbulent first half of the campaign, which started out with the hope of riding both the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, and testing himself as a GC rider. He missed out on the Giro, however, as his seemingly annual April slump resurfaced and, as he explained, he has since been bounced around by the team.
“I wasn’t even supposed to be in this race. I asked to go on the training camp for the Tour and do the Dauphiné, but I think they needed riders for [Tour of] California so I said, ‘OK I’ll do California and then do the altitude camp, and [Tour de] Suisse’. I knew I’d have good opportunities in Suisse so I was pretty motivated for that,” said Kennaugh.
Swift encounter
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