Arvesen commentates on Sky teammates
Norwegian analyses team's performance and chances
𝕴Team Sky’s Kurt-A𝕴sle Arvesen made a surprise appearance outside the Sky team bus on the start of stage 6 in Montargis. The 35-year-old Norwegian was left out of the team’s line-up after his season was blighted by injury.
Here as a television commentator, Arvesen has witnessed his current and previous teams, Sky and Saxo Bank, respectively, act as major prota🐓gonists. Fabian Canc꧃ellara (Saxo Bank) currently leads the race, with Geraint Thomas (Sky) in white as the best young rider.
Had he made Sky&rsqu𝄹o;s line-up, Arvesen would have shepherded Bradley Wiggins through the first week. The Briton currently lies in 14th place overall, 1.49 down Cancel🌃lara
“I don’t think we’ve seen his form yet, we’ll have to wait until the mountains but hopefully he’s rea༒dy like last year. The Alps will be a true test of who is the strongest and Sunday’s stage to Morzine is hard. We’ll see who is in good form. Sky has ridden a good Tour so far and Edvald [Boasson Hagen] and Geraint [Thomas] are both up there and that’s really good. You have to also remember that this is our first Tour together.”
Boasson Hagen currently lies third in the points classificati༒on after a consistent but unsℱpectacular start to his Tour debut. However Arvesen doesn’t believe that his fellow Norwegian will target the green jersey at this stage.
“I don’t think he’s thinking about that. He’s mainly here for Br🧸adley but he will try and be there in the sprints.”
As for his former team, Arv🤡esen is well aware how much Andy Schleck w🌳ill miss older brother Fränk in the mountains.
The latest race content, interviews, features, 🎉reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your i💎nbox!
“Andy will miss Frä🦂;nk when he comes up to the climbs. He just has to try and follow and then try and attack if he hasꦦ anything else. When it comes to the big climbs he’s just going to have to think about himself and attack.”
As for the rest of the GC contenders Arvesen selected the usual suspects. “I hope for Bradley and if he does top three he should be really happy. It’s hard this year and there are a lot of good guys up there. Bradley, Contador, Schleck, Contador, Cadel, Gesink a𒈔nd Lance, lots of strong guys.”
Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at gxiaowu.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he✤ 𒀰joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.