Magnus Cort's lengthy spell in the Tour de France mountain classification lead has both provided EF Education-EasyPost with a pathway to follow and simultaneously opened up a welcome breathing space for handling expectations, team management say.
After breaking away in his native Denmark, Cort led the mountain classification for over a week prior to ceding the top spot to Simon Geschke (Cofidis) on stage 9.
But even if no longer adding to his considerable polka-dot jersey collection, according to team manager Charly Wegelius, the Dane's spell as King of the Mountains leader has provided an ideal start for EF Education-EasyPost.
"It's a good way of setting the tone for the whole group, and it brings you to the high-pressure moments without the feeling we've done absolutely nothing for the first 12 days," Wegelius told Cyclingnews shortly before the Tour began its first rest day.
"There'll be teams that come out of the Alps and say 'now we've really desperately got to do something'. And we want more than what we've done so far, too. But it's a nice stepping stone."
Overall, Wegelius said, EF Education-EasyPost was in a good place at the Tour de France so far, even if the abandon of Ruben Guerreiro, a recent winner of the Mont Ventoux Classic, because of injuries marked a definite downside for the team.
"It [Guerreiro's abandon] is part and parcel of the Tour, and it's quite sad because today's stage had his name written all over it. But he had quite a big hit on the first day in Denmark, he was on the road to recovery but it wasn't really working out. So we'll move on. He was one of our go-to guys, but that's part of the game."
In general, though, Wegelius said "We're looking very good. On Friday, you could see we did well on the run-in [stage 8] and that was a horse-power run-in, not technical.
"Alberto [Bettiol] is well and truly in the game, Neilson [Powless] is good, Rigoberto [Urán] had a fall but he's in it.
"I think the heat is going to play a big part as we go forward, but you know how it is in this race, everybody's got their dreams until the moment they're stood in the middle of the road. But we're doing everything we can and we can afford to be optimistic."
Currently ninth overall and their best-placed rider on GC, Powless has secured the team's best placing on a stage as well, fourth on the trek across the cobbles to Arenberg where he came within a whisker of taking the yellow jersey to boot.
"He's got the talent and he's done the work," Wegelius enthused, "and he's just getting his targets lined up really. Regarding the technical side of riding, it's one thing doing it in a week-long race, another in a three-week race. But he's doing really great and step by step we'll see how far he can go."
Looking how the Tour is playing out across the board, to judge from much of the media, it'd possible to twist that old American saying of 'nothing is certain in life but death and taxes' into 'nothing is certain in the Tour 2022 but COVID and Tadej Pogačar in yellow.' But while acknowledging that the COVID-19 continues to be "the cloud hanging over all our heads", Wegelius is not so convinced the GC battle has already ended.
"If you read the headlines you could think there was an ultra-dominant Pogačar. But the time gaps are still quite small. And I wouldn't underestimate Jonas [Vingegaard] at all. If you find yourself with one leg up and one leg down on the Granon [on Wednesday], you're not coming back from that.
"So let's see what happens. In any case, I don't think the race is as over as it might look."Nor yet does Wegelius believe that myth that whoever is the lead on Thursday at Alpe d'Huez will be, barring disaster, the yellow jersey in Paris. Although interestingly, if Pogačar is in the lead, he did argue that rather than Jumbo-Visma. Ineos Grenadiers' strength in numbers might well provide a better platform to beat him.
"If we can assume we're talking about Pogačar, that'll depend on the time gaps he has on the second and third riders of Ineos Grenadiers," Wegelius said. For the record, Ineos Grenadiers currently have Geraint Thomas in third at 1:17; Adam Yates in fourth at 1:25 and Tom Pidcock in seventh at 1:46.
"Because if Ineos can keep multiple riders close, then they can move those riders from a long way out to put Pogačar's team under pressure and force them ride harder, earlier rather than there just being a group going up the road and UAE riding a nice tempo. I think that's what they were hoping to do last year, but they had those crashes."
But just as Ineos Grenadiers cannot simply rely on a carbon copy strategy of their 2021 Tour for the 2022 Tour, neither can EF Education-EasyPost or any other squad, Wegelius concluded.
There's obviously a series of fixed entities in the race you can plan for and you have to. But it would be naive to persuade yourself that you can put everything in a box in October and just copy and paste it out the next summer. You've got to be able to improvise because the riders' recuperation goes up and down and every other team has their plan.
"You have to be able to react and pivot because it's naive to start a race and not think you won't have to wake up one morning and re-do things. That's a hard balance to strike because athletes love to have a clear plan, but in this sport you just have to move with the times and think on your feet." And at the Tour de France, even more so.
