'An exceptional moment' – Uno-X keenly anticipating Tour de France debut

With palm trees and a massive dried-up riverbed for a view for the team buses at the start of stage 3 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, not to mention a chilly early morning breeze in the air, in some ways, the backstreets of the Spanish coastal town of Burriana this February could hardly feel further from summer and the Tour de France.

But for Uno-X Pro Cycling Team in general and Alexander Kristoff in particular, for all the Classics are fast looming on the horizon as the most immediate major targets, the prospect of being the first Norwegian men's team ever to take part in cycling's biggest event come July is simply impossible to ignore. And not absolutely everything is ideal about it.

"For sure, I was thinking maybe I would have a summer vacation, but now that's not going to happen," Kristoff says with his characteristically dry humour.

"You never know because you can be sick or injured, either. But I'm looking forward to it, I hope I can do it."

Scandinavians are not exactly well-known for getting effusive about their feelings, and Kristoff, a four-time Tour de France stage winner, first points out the actual racing in itself this summer will not be new to him at all.

But even the veteran Classics man can't avoid the sense that he'll be taking part in something groundbreaking for Norwegian sport come July 1 and the Grand Depart at Bilbao.

"I'm proud, too, because it's a historic moment for my country's cycling. It's cool to be part of it with the first Norwegian team, something to tell your kids and grandkids."

However, as a rider with two Monuments to his name along with a host of other top one-day races, including an untypical solo win at Scheldeprijs last April, on a practical level, Kristoff is keeping his eye firmly on the ball on what's in store in the next couple of months.

"For sure, we have this big goal in the summer, but for me, I'm not focussed there yet because Classics are coming," the 35-year-old, who is making his debut in Uno-X colours at Valenciana, points out. "I focus more on the day-by-day or month-by-month rather than half-year by half-year."

As for the Classics, the former Milano-San Remo and Tour of Flanders winner says, "After Algarve, I should be up there. Opening Weekend is generally not so good for me, but after this, I get to go to Paris-Nice, so that's when I hope to be hitting my top shape. And maybe," he adds with a slow smile, "I can win Scheldeprijs again."

Their maiden 2023 win – a stage in the Saudi Tour – he points out, is good for the team psychologically, as it eases the pressure of "having to get their first victory. Now it's not like we'll get to April, or something, still looking to get that win."

'We need to be sure everything is at a top level'

Having joined Uno-X over the off-season, Kristoff says he's already enjoying the feel of being in a squad from his home country.

"It's a professional team like any other team I've been on. In some ways, it's not that different, except we're talking Scandinavian languages on the bus," he says.

"But it's always motivating to see these young guys moving forward and taking things step by step and getting stronger as the days and weeks go past. It's always good to be a part of something like that."

Asked if he would have a role as a 'grandfather figure' for giving advice and so on to the younger riders in the Tour de France line-up or if he would be looking to fight for stages himself, Kristoff answered with a wry, "I'm not feeling like a grandpa even maybe if I look like one.

"I'll be doing a bit of both," Kristoff says, referring to going for stage wins and having an advisory role. "If there are things I can help with, I will, although we have sports directors to do that. But maybe more than anybody else on the team, I know what to expect."

Perhaps because he's talking to a journalist, Kristoff says, "there's way more media pressure, and they're not used to that, for example. I've already told them to calculate on taking at least 15-20 minutes extra from the bus to the sign-on, because of people wanting photographs, autographs and so on.

"So it's better to turn up 30 minutes earlier than, say, here in Valenciana. There are crowds here, of course, but nothing like the Tour."

If Kristoff will be very much one of the high-profile figures for the team come the summer, behind the scenes at Uno-X, the impact of the Tour de France is already being felt. Although, like Kristoff, for the staff, the importance of keeping the Tour in a bigger perspective is also very much a factor as well.

"My experience from the past is to have a well-established plan, a tracking list of everything that needs to be solved before the Tour, but it is another bike race, we're not trying to invent something new," team directeur sportif Gabriel Rasch, who had a similar role in management with Ineos and Sky, told Cyclingnews during the race.

"At the same time, it's special, so we need to be sure everything is at a top level, the bikes, the clothing, the equipment, who we have there. The news we were doing it came through just after Christmas, so we have enough time, but as soon as we knew, I started looking at stages and the race, in general, to see where our opportunities are.

"We have a long list of riders already, and we're planning altitude training and camps before and after Dauphiné, too."

Combining stage hunting and GC riding

If getting to the Tour de France is a massive step in itself, the question of what Uno-X can achieve once they have made it to the start line is not one the team are avoiding, either.

"I think we will look at both the GC and stages," Rasch says. "Alex needs to have a good group around him, there are plenty of opportunities for him, of course, and some riders can potentially get some great results in the breaks.

"Then we haveTræen Torstein here and Tobias Johannessen, who can both do a good GC if everything is going well."

Combining GC and stage wins is not an unrealistic objective, Rasch points out.

"You can see pretty clearly that even if you're top 10 in the GC in the Tour, you can go for a stage because time gaps were so big between the top guys and those who were further back.

"Last year, guys like [Alpe d'Huez winner] Tom Pidcock were 20 minutes behind the leaders and still in the top ten on the GC, and they could do both."

Just as for Kristoff, Rasch is quietly proud he can be part of a breakthrough moment for his country's cycling come July, and convinced, too, Uno-X have the kind of attitude to racing that will help produce the best collective result possible in the biggest sporting challenge road racing can offer.

"Our big strength is that we are such a good team together. There's no high shoulders or big egos," he explains. "We're not afraid to tell each other what we're thinking, we're making sure we get everybody's thoughts, nobody's scared of sharing their ideas."

And on a personal note, he says that building for the summer and Uno-X's men's team's Tour de France debut with riders and management who have been part of his own cycling career for many years also adds another big layer of enjoyment and anticipation.

As he puts it, "With all the guys I know in the team, some of whom I've been with as a little kid in cycling, and we were on teams together, guys like Stig Kristiansen, Gino Van Oudenhove and Kurt-Asle Arvesen – it is really special."