Paris (AFP)
It was the voice in Chris Froome's headset. Nicolas Portal, the sporting director of Ineos, who collected 6 victories on the Tour de France with "Froomey", Geraint Thomas (2018) and Egan Bernal (2019) died "suddenly" at 40 on Tuesday.
If the Sky winning machine - renamed Ineos - had an engineer, it was he, Nicolas Portal: under the orders of the French, the British team, of which he became sporting director in 2013, imposed a domination almost without sharing on the Tour.
Only the 2014 edition escaped his stranglehold, the fault of abandonment of Chris Froome from the 5th stage after repeated falls.
Under the supervision of the omnipotent Dave Brailsford, Nicolas Portal, an almost anonymous team member of the peloton of the 2000s, turned into one of the most successful sports directors of cycling at only 40 years old.
"From his racing career to his role as sports director with Ineos, Nicolas has devoted his life to cycling", reacted the president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), David Lappartient, "deeply shocked" by his death.
The Ineos cycling team, which announced his death in a press release, did not specify the reasons for his death. It would be a heart attack according to the Gazzetta dello Sport.
Whatever his meager track record - a stage of the Dauphiné in 2004 -, the Gersois, first mountain biker before embarking on the road with AG2R in 2001, imposed his style in finesse on the most powerful of the peloton where its relational, in front of the cameras as with its troops, put oil in the wheels.
Enough to convince in 2018 Chris Froome, behind and with the image tainted by his abnormal control with salbutamol, to leave the light to Geraint Thomas. Who will have to step aside in front of the Colombian phenomenon Egan Bernal, a year later.
Froome, whom Nicolas Portal said were "really the same", immediately paid tribute to him on Tuesday: "He was the nicest and happiest guy I knew and he always lived his life to the full. Rest In Peace Nico. "
- heart problem in 2009 -
Professional runner between 2001 and 2010, Nicolas had to stop cycling several months in 2009 due to a heart problem, before joining the ex-Team Sky for a season, once he received the medical green light.
He rubbed shoulders with Froome a year as a teammate before Dave Brailsford, seduced by his composure, his sense of detail and contact, offered him a retraining in the management of the team.
After Bradley Wiggins' victory in the Tour de France (2012), the first of the new British armada, he was promoted to chief sport director in 2013 to replace Sean Yates on the start line.
With a trademark, phlegm even in hot moments, such as when Chris Froome broke his bike during the ascent of Ventoux in 2016.
"Guys here, they're not in a soccer game. They're stressed out because it's dangerous every day. They've been thinking about it for a month. There is no need to add more ", theorized Nicolas Portal this summer, questioned by AFP on the tone to be adopted by the sports director during the race as during the briefings.
"It would add excitement, tension, nervousness. They could lose their professionalism," said the former runner, after a decade in the peloton including four seasons with the Spanish team Caisse d'Epargne.
© 2020 AFP