How was that? Attila Valter Philippe Mauduit, the most Italian of the French in the group, explains very well why he landed at Groupama-Fdj. The intuition came from Yvon Madiot, Marc's younger brother and his partner in the pink jersey squad. Cycling had just restarted from the first lockdown and word had already spread that the CCC would not continue. And so Madiot began to study and he identified the name of that Hungarian boy who would soon win the home race leaving behind Quinn Simmons of the Trek-Segafredo.
"He started to pester Marc," Philippe smiles, "that we should meet him, because it was worth it. And so in August We had a three-way Skype call: Yvon, Attila, and myself.We talked for half an hour and we saw that even though he was really young, he had just turned 22, he had very clear ideas. In the end the choice to take him came almost naturally and he seemed very happy to accept."
Pain threshold
From here to imagining that in less than a year the pink jersey would have arrived, it's a really long step for the boy who had won the last stage at the 2019 Tour de l'Avenir and who At the Giro last October he placed 11th in the young riders' classification.
"It's difficult to say his value," Mauduit explains, "because 22 years is really too young to understand. One thing we noticed right away, however, is the ability to hurt oneself when in trouble or when one has a goalHe knows how to push past the pain threshold, and he does it rationally. If he convinces himself he can do it, he usually does. He's feisty. If he lets go, it means he's really dead.».
The second rose
There are conflicting versions of the San Giacomo stage. After arriving, the rider declared that he had set out since the morning with the aim of taking the lead, while the sports director says he recommended him to aim for the stage and that the ranking would have been a consequence of it, if anything.
«I told him to stay focused on the stage – he explains – because on climbs like this, if the leaders of the classification had looked at each other, he could have started on the counterattack and maybe won. Probably when he realized that it would not be possible to catch Mader, he concentrated on the pink jersey and he got this amazing reward. For me the rose is the most beautiful shirt in the worldI don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight. I think the only time Groupama-Fdj, despite having so many years in their legs, has been there was with Bradley McGee at the 2004 Giro. These are no small things, guys. We took the pink jersey!».
A great school
The sense of emphasis that filters through his words gives the exact dimension of the prestige of the symbol and it is even more beautiful thinking that a Frenchman is pronouncing them, whose attachment to the yellow of the Tour is notoriously unshakeable.
"We'll all have to make an effort to keep our feet on the ground," says the Groupama-Fdj coach, "because the white jersey already seemed exceptional to us. So before sending him to bed I told him: 'Look where you are, look at the champions around you and Try to catch up. Because those people won't give you anything."But it's clear that we'll try to hold on to it. You can't let an honor like this go, and the guys will give it their all. We know that in the mountains we'll probably find riders stronger than us, but in any case we'll give it our all. In the Groupama del Giro there are three very young guys. Two are 22 and one is 23. However it ends, it will be an extraordinary school for them.».
