Keep an eye on French champion Grégoire on Friday's Tour de France stage 13: 'I’m really going to enjoy that'

Romain Grégoire finished seventh in the second stage of the Tour de France, but we haven’t seen much of him so far in this year’s Tour. The newly crowned French champion is frustrated by this, as he explains in an interview with IDL Pro Cycling. The Groupama rider isn’t throwing in the towel just yet. He explains what we can still expect from him, and where...

It was Isaac Del Toro who paved the way for team leader Tadej Pogacar’s victory in Barcelona, but in the background, Grégoire emerged in seventh place. The six riders ahead of him? Del Toro, Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel, Jonas Vingegaard, Mattias Skjelmose, and Tobias Halland Johannessen. There are worse riders to finish seventh behind.

Still, what followed wasn’t quite the Tour de France Grégoire had envisioned. We saw him in the breakaway during Stage 4, but other than that, the beautiful blue, white, and red jersey hadn’t been seen much at the front. “It’s going okay, even though it’s not yet the Tour de France we’d hoped for,” he replied when this site asked him about his Tour so far.

Grégoire was able to point out a reason for that as well. “We understand that the level of competition in this Tour is very high, so there’s little room for early breakaways or for riders in the second group.” That could very well change on Friday, during Stage 13 to Belfort. A tough climb awaits in the final stretch.

Grégoire certainly sees an opportunity. “Tomorrow (Friday, ed.) I think there’s a good chance for a breakaway, even though we’ll have to climb the Ballon d’Alsace. That will suit a good climber, but it will mainly be a stage for a breakaway, since the weekend—which includes some very tough mountain stages—will be for the general classification contenders,” the Frenchman said.

Grégoire usually prefers the more challenging climbs, but he knows the Ballon d'Alsace like no one else. After all, he was born in Besançon, which Friday’s stage passes right by. “There will be a lot of people along the road tomorrow to cheer me on, so that’ll be great. I’m really going to enjoy that.”

"It's really a stage for a breakaway, so we'll try to stay up front," the French champion reiterated. Is this right up his alley, or too tough? "Given the conditions over the past few days, I think it's going to be tough. There will need to be a breakaway without too many strong climbers for us to have any hope of winning.”

As Grégoire already mentioned, the following weekend looks set to be all about the general classification contenders, but the Groupama rider has already set his sights further ahead. “There might be an opportunity on Wednesday (Stage 17, ed.) in Voiron. The sprint teams are often caught off guard in the third week. After that, the stage on the Champs-Élysées could also get interesting.” To be continued!