Shortly after winning the Critérium du Dauphiné, we spoke to Rolf Aldag, Head of Sports at BORA – hansgrohe. He not only accompanied the race as sports director, but also travelled straight on to the next altitude training camp with the Dauphiné team.
What atmosphere do you sense in the team after the Dauphiné?
"The atmosphere is good. Immediately after the race you realise how physically demanding the week was. It feels like all the riders are a bit tired and are busy taking a nap. The day after is for regeneration and each rider uses it differently: Primož and Bob, for example, rode their bikes up to our base - others decided to take it easy on the rollers. And now we continue up here at the altitude training camp."
Eight days in the Dauphiné were a rollercoaster and in the end it was a close call. Give us an impression from the car: How did you experience the last 5 kilometres of the race?
"The last 5 kilometres of the race were of course very interesting. In the car behind the peloton, our information is often limited to the announcements from Radio Tour. We can still pass on details to the riders, try to motivate and encourage them. But in the actual finale, we are only witnesses to what happens. In this case, it wasn't necessary to give Primoz much route information. We knew that the last 2.5 kilometres would be easier: a short descent, taking the momentum. So we kept our fingers crossed that Rodriguez would win the sprint against Jorgensen and make a 4 second time bonus difference in our favour. And if you calmly count to eight, 8 seconds can be a long time."
Did this success come at exactly the right time?
“Every success is always good. It's always a confirmation of the processes in our team. You don't win the Dauphiné every day. Like the Tour de Suisse or Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice, it is a very important race. In this respect, a victory is always good for motivation and morale in the team. For us, however, the fact that this great success confirms our path towards the Tour de France is almost more important. It's important that we don't have to question everything just before the Tour. We now know exactly where we stand.”
The team classification is often not the most important thing. How do you rate the fact that all 7 riders finished on the podium at the Dauphiné in terms of team building?
"Winning the team classification and being on the podium with 7 riders is always a nice thing. It's more or less a side effect, but as a team you also need three riders each time for the timekeeping, which are then included in the team classification. Winning this classification shows that we have three riders at the top who can ride well up front. At the Dauphiné, the time was not made by breakaway groups taking 20 minutes. Here it was always the best against the best. Then to win the team classification by seven minutes and stand on the podium together was really nice. Also because some riders rarely have the opportunity to stand on the podium at a WorldTour race."
The Tour starts in just under two weeks. What can still be worked on in this final phase?
"In terms of the cornerstones, we're there and don't need to worry too much. Staying healthy is super important. Staying on the bike is super important. We're still focussing on the details. Improving details is always possible and should never be taken too lightly. The first thing after the Dauphiné is to recover. Even if we want to continue our upward trend, we now need to take a breath and let a few days pass so that all the riders are mentally and physically fresh again."