El Tour es el Tour. Alex Aranburu It does not need more to explain the dimension of the challenge facing this July. It is not only the largest race of the calendar, nor the most often, nor the one that defines trajectories: it is, for him, the scenario where he can consecrate. “I want to see how I am, because it's a bit unknown,” he confesses to Marca The Guipuzcoan with that mixture of humility and determination that characterizes him.
Aranburu, One of the most intelligent and versatile cyclists of the Spanish platoon, has reached this edition of the Tour with the role of looking for opportunities with co -confisites in those trap stages that are neither of pure sprinters nor of climbers. His. “There are options of stages that can get from the escape or in a small squad. Let's see if we have legs and we can get it right or wherever you can,” he says. He knows that it will not be easy, because those days are also a favorite terrain of giants such as Van der Poel or Pogacar: “They will be very expensive …”
In the platoon, Aranburu observes from close how those above fly. Literally. “It is seen that they are (he says it by Pogacar, Vingegaard) at another level. When they want, they stay two alone … well, and some more too. They have power, they are well placed and if they see the goal … they are very fast,” he analyzes without drama, but with realism. “From the outside you don't appreciate how they are really. You see in a port how they go up and do not get an idea of what that means from within.”
The Rampón where Sagan won in 2012 caused a change of leader among colleagues from Alpecin.
Despite the difficulty, it does not become obsessed. “The tour gives you a lot, yes, but I don't take my sleep away. Last year I made fourth in one stage and I saw it nearby. That gives you illusion,” he recalls. What costs you the most is the invisible life of the cyclist: “Being so long away from home. Between concentrations and races, we spent very little time at home.”
This year you feel more comfortable in the French team. “There is a little more English, new people have arrived and that has helped me,” he explains about his adaptation. The block is balanced: opportunities will be sought in volatous and leaks for leaks … “I will have my opportunities,” summarize with a smile a cyclist who is inside a team that plays life for the famous points. “The pressure is in the environment, but what touches us is to try to make good careers to save the situation.”
For Aranburu, modern cycling is an exact science. “We go to the millimeter: nutrition, height, material, concentrations … they make it easy, but it is not.” In that millimeter madness also the speed enters, increasing. “Chente told us last year that it was impressive how the peoples passed. In the cars they were scared, at 50 or 55 per hour all the time. Inside you are not so conscious, but it does notice,” recalls the cyclist of a team that has suffered a painful robbery at the beginning of this race.
Bingen Fernández, team director, reviewed the details with brand
About the new cycling
Support measures that increase security, such as the new rules of the UCI, and does not think too much about the international calendar beyond the tour. Neither European, nor worldwide for now: “I have not talked to anyone (when we ask him about Valverde). I think they are hard this year. I don't know if they will be for me, we'll see.”
At 29 years, Besenburu He has not lost a gram of ambition. Nor has he forgotten that, in this tour, any day he can be his. Part of the successful options of Spanish cycling, which has 10 'warriors' in this edition, depart for Alex's inspiration.
