Cedric Vasseurthe team manager Cofidisspoke at a press conference on the eve of the departure of Tour de France 2024. Can his team do as well as on the Tour 2023where she won 2 stages? “We will try to do better!” he said with a smile. “I think we must always try to set the bar a little higher. We have a good part of the 2024 squad which resembles that of the 2023 edition, since we have six identical riders. There are just Victor Lafay and Anthony Perez who will be replaced by Piet Allegaert, whose mission will be to propel Bryan Coquard to a stage victory, and Jesus Herrada, who has already shone several times in the Vuelta, and who will try to do so on the roads of the Tour de France So I think we really have a team similar to the last edition..
Tour de France 2024: Cédric Vasseur ambitious for Cofidis
“We must target our objectives”
“We may have also broken this feeling of inferiority, which meant that for more than fifteen years Cofidis failed to win stages. I think we have a team that is relaxed, Guillaume (Martin), Bryan (Coquard), Simon (Geschke), the others too, and especially on a mental level they know that we can win a stage on the Tour de France. So now our objective is to create a new Victor Lafay in our 2024 squad.”.
How to survive, knowing that the mountainous or hilly stages risk being preempted by the four favorites (Pogacar, Vingegaard, Roglic, Evenepoel), and that even on the slightly flatter stages other riders could be untouchable (Van der Poel, From Aert) ? “We have to be ambitious but realistic. We really have to target our objectives. We know very well that out of the 21 stages there are some where we will have to let the ‘Fantastics’ go, because these are stages that are too difficult for us, where we have more interest in keeping our energy. We will still have between 7 and 8 sprints, and you saw Bryan Coquard’s resplendent form on the Tour de Suisse. I think we will put all our energy into these stages at first, even if we know that there is a very high level with Philipsen, Groenewegen, etc…”.
Seize opportunities
But it won’t just be sprints: “And then we have stages that will smile on the adventurers. The difficult start of the Tour is rather to our advantage, because it will have the effect of very quickly prioritizing the general classification: it is very likely that by the evening of the Valloire stage we find ourselves with a general classification already well established and that will perhaps give more opportunities to the breakaways. Our way of existing is to seize these opportunities, leaving the fight for the breakaways. leaders to leaders, and above all not trying to get involved in this match”.
