Following the runner-up performance by Rigoberto Urán at the 2017 Tour de France, EF Education First-Drapac are cranking up the dream machine in the hope of lifting the gregarious Colombian to the French Grand Tour's top step this year when the race ends in Paris on July 29.
It seems like a staggeringly tall order to get past Chris Froome and the juggernaut Team Sky have created over the last half decade at cycling's biggest race, but the underdog team run by American Jonathan Vaughters have convinced themselves they're up to the challenge.
Vaughters and team director Charly Wegelius have put together a diverse roster of experienced hands and enthusiastic newcomers to try to make Urán's Tour de France dream come true. There are no plan Bs for July at EF Education First-Drapac; they're all in for Urán and his GC ambitions. It's Champagne in Paris or bust.
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At 31, Urán's own Grand Tour ambitions are back on the rise after several years of heading in the wrong direction, and so far this year the Colombian appears to be on the trajectory of finding fine form for July. A stage win in February at his home race Oro Y Paz, followed by solid days through Tirreno-Adriatico and the Ardennes Classics, set him up for this month's Tour de Slovenie, where he bagged second overall and a stage win to test his legs.
Of his seven support riders, only Tom Scully started the Giro d'Italia, but the 27-year-old Kiwi quit before stage 14 and has had plenty of time to regather his form ahead of the upcoming three-week test in July. The rest have been focused on July, first with the goal of making the roster, and now turning towards meeting the challenge and living up to Urán's high expectations.
Urán will bring a team that can hold its own on the stage 3 team time trial, and shepherd him confidently through the other opening-week challenges on the sprint days and when the peloton tackles some of Paris-Roubaix's cobblestones on stage 9.
EF Education First-Drapac's Tour de France Squad
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