ATTAAAAAAQUE DE PIE ... No, sorry.

-

KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

  • Resumed 13 km from the finish on Sunday after a new attack, Pierre Rolland is one of the last French riders to offer a little spectacle to his audience.

  • The climber, currently 18th in the general classification, dreams above all of a stage victory by the finish on the Champs on September 20th.

  • Known for his incessant attacks, Pierre Rolland would however like that we do not remember him as this punchline “ATTACK OF PIERRE ROLLAND”, even if he promised to try his luck again tomorrow during the 16th stage.

In the life of a top athlete, there are some labels that are more difficult than others to peel off.

Like that, we can quote Neymar-I-make-cash-at-the-slightest-contact, Anthony Lopes the kamikaze in his aerial outings or Richard-it-too-hard-pfiou-he-was- fort-en-face-Gasquet.

But what about the leader of the B&B Hôtels Vital-Concept cycling team and his famous “ATTAQUE DE PIERRE ROLLAND” which has become at least as famous as the tour caravan and its Cochonou bobs?

There it is no longer even a label but a giant advertising panel stuck to the glue.

To the point of annoying him, as his former teammate Thomas Voeckler suggested on his bike on Sunday during the stage between Lyon and Grand Colombier, who now refuses to use this expression at the first acceleration of his friend?

Not quite.

PIERRE ROLLAND ATTACK!

# TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/A1Jw1nKc5w

- In the Musette (@DansLaMusette) September 13, 2020

An attacker, yes but not only

He was asked the question on Monday on the Tour's rest day, before it entered its third and final week of racing.

“Ahah, well you have to attack to win, so good…, he laughs the time to think about an answer.

Let's say I find it a bit reductive to just take that out when people talk about me.

After that, I don't mind that much either in the sense that I prefer to be described as someone who attacks rather than someone who stays in the wheels and who only benefits from the work of others.

He himself does not refrain from ironically surfing the phenomenon, as we can see in his tweet published on Monday.

If I don't win, I won't attack for the last week!

😏😈 # TDF2020 l @LeTour https://t.co/qF2YPfDgzB

- Rolland Pierre (@PierroooRolland) September 14, 2020

The idea of ​​Loirétain?

That his “career is not all about that.

»Pfiou, we are reassured.

We will be able to continue screaming this punchline at the top of our lungs from our sofa, while keeping in mind that the winner of the Tour stage at Alpe d'Huez in 2011 is also a rider capable of going to the the end of his ideas.

Even if his last victory on a grand tour, the Giro in this case, dates back to 2017.

Hence this fierce desire to bite into the cake this year on the Grande Boucle.

“So far I have found openings but now I have to come to a conclusion, admits Jean-Claude Dusse of the Breton team.

It would be a shame to have the level and the sensations and not succeed in raising the arms by the end of the Tour ”.

The catch, as he himself puts it, is that “opportunities will be scarce” as the Tour approaches Paris.

In his head, he only has “two opportunities” left in the mountains.

"I think the Loze pass will be, like yesterday [Sunday], for the favorites," he says.

By elimination, therefore remains the stage of Tuesday between Tour-du-Pin and Villars-de-Lans and that of Thursday between Méribel and La Roche-sur-Foron.

"I think I'll go back to the attack"

So be prepared for more “PIERRE ROLLAND ATTACKS” in the days to come because the runner is not the type to play poker face.

He announces, he does it.

Especially since he is aware of being in a position of strength compared to some of his counterparts used to sticking out their tongues in the last week of a grand tour.

“It's true that my first quality is being ultra-enduring, which means that in the third week in general I feel a little less tired than most of the peloton.

I hope to find suitable terrain, sensations and racing circumstances that will work in my favor.

"

Ok, we take good note ... ATTACK OF PIERRE ROLLAND!

- In the Musette (@DansLaMusette) September 13, 2020

If he starts, Pierre Rolland has promised to "give everything to go to the end, out of respect for the Tour, for the public, for the sponsors".

What about the goal of finishing with the polka dot jersey on the Champs?

By scoring eighteen points on Sunday at the top of the Selle de Fromentel (second behind Herrada) and the Col de la Biche (first in front of Gogl), the Frenchman, back in the race (6th with 31 points, ten points behind provisional leader Benoît Cosnefroy), does not “refuse anything.

If the legs allow it, I think that I will return to the attack ”.

It always comes back to that.

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