Miguel Ángel López on the Tour de France

August 20, 2020 – 07:26 pm
2020-08-20 By:

AFP / El País

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8 days before the start of the Tour de France, Miguel Ángel López looks with optimism and enthusiasm for his first foray into the greatest stage race in world cycling.

After the Critérium de Dauphiné, the leader of Astana traveled with his staff to the town of Sestriere to finalize details of his preparation in a high altitude camp, accompanied by some of the cyclists who will make up the roster for the ‘Grand Bouclé’, among them the Spanish Luis León Sánchez.

“We work in height to give the final blow to the leg and the final touch to the body. These days we have trained very calmly because the Dauphiné has been very hard for everyone, ”said the prominent Colombian cyclist.
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He anticipated that what is coming, the Tour de France, although it is an important and hard race, must be enjoyed.

“The objective is to get to the Tour well, you have to go calmly and above all enjoy it. It is my first time on the Tour, I am going to fulfill my dream and what happens or happens later will be something else, “said Miguel, fifth overall in Dauphiné, a race that marked the end of the preparatory cycle before appearing on the line. starting in Nice.

The Dauphiné, good thermometer

López, who is the leader of Astana, took the Criterium Dauphiné as a good meter for what will be his arrival at the Tour de France.

The 26-year-old rider from Boyacá recognized that the level was quite high in that French race, which in the end was also won by Andrés Martínez from Colombia.

“The race pace was quite high and at the beginning it was difficult for me, but we saw that in the Dauphiné we were doing better every day. We are calm. There is a lot of tension in the peloton, there is a lot of strength and a lot of desire for the few opportunities to give everything and show off, ”said the Astana leader.

He stated that “The important thing is that we are well and we are on the right path.”

On his way to the Tour, the Boyacense competed in the Occitania Route, the Mont Ventoux Denivele Challenge and the Critérium de Dauphiné, where in addition to being in the title dispute until the end, he showed a clear evolution in his performance.

Seeing the level we have had in the Criterium Dauphiné, which clearly we all saw, Roglic was too good with one or two points above the others, and another group that had more or less equal strength ”, expressed ‘Supermán’.

He assured that at a certain moment he saw that he could fight for the Dauphiné title.

“I wanted to try, at one point I thought I could win the race and I went to all or nothing, I have always been like that and that day I said: ‘either it works out or it doesn’t work out, that’s it,'” said López, who will fulfill the cycle of participations in Grand Tours after having achieved the consecutive podium of the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España in the 2018 season.

On August 29, the Tour de France show will begin; It will be his first experience in the best cycling race in the world that his compatriot Egan Bernal won last year.

López is clear about what he is going to do in this event that attracts the attention of the world.

“It is my first Tour and we want to do things well, with the team we have the faith, the desire and the willingness to always provide the best. We have to go very calmly and whatever happens, “said the Boyacá rider.

He pointed out that the Tour “It is the best cycling race, but we are calm with what we have and with the level that there is. We have not defined the full roster, but as always a great group will accompany me ”.

So far this season, the Astana leader has accumulated 2,482 kilometers in 15 days of competition. In February he won a stage victory and the podium at the Volta de Algarve, in Portugal.

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