What did Hoole's gesture to Seixas mean at the Rhône-Alpes team time trial? 'It naturally goes fast'

There was a loud cheer in Perreux on Tuesday when crowd favourite Paul Seixas crossed the line in the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes team time trial. Even so, his team Decathlon CMA CGM eventually finished sixth. Daan Hoole crossed the line 2:43 after his leader, where the Dutchman spoke to IDL Pro Cycling, among others.

Tuesday was not only an important day for the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, but also very much for the Tour de France. The team time trial in the ‘new Dauphiné’ was set to provide teams with plenty of information going into the Tour, despite the route being longer and slightly different to the one waiting in Barcelona.

That was the case on Tuesday as well, although the strong Léo Bisiaux finished only 10 seconds after his leader. At that point, Decathlon stood in virtual second place, which eventually became sixth. “We had a good tactic,” Hoole concluded. “But we did lose Stefan (Bissegger, ed.) a bit earlier than planned.”

No panic. “That can happen sometimes. We made the best of it.” The Dutchman also felt his team looked strong technically. “We were very fast on the descent.” The difficulty lay in the course itself. “On the climbs, it is a bit tricky to find a balance between going as hard as possible, but also keeping the heavier riders in the wheel. You really still need them for the final part,” Hoole repeated.

Because by then the French team was down to four riders in the closing section. “And then you notice that it is not going fast enough. Then you need more riders.” After all, when Seixas stands on the pedals as the road goes up... Hoole had to tell his prolific teammate to ease off a little.

“Paul is, of course, a very strong rider. He is one of the best climbers in the world. If he is pulling on the climb, it naturally goes fast. We were without Stefan, so I then told him that he had to do longer turns,” the Dutchman continued in his analysis. “In the end, he did that and he was super strong. Really the big engine of our team,” he said.

Author: Guathier Ribeiro