Wednesday 15 July 2015 18:31, UK
After supporting Chris Froome through a tricky opening week Leopold König can't wait for the Tour de France to hit the mountains.
After supporting Chris Froome through a tricky opening week Leopold König can't wait for the Tour de France to hit the mountains.
Alongside his team-mates the Czech climber managed to negotiate a tricky opening nine stages, but as the race prepares to enter the Pyrenees König admits that this is where his Tour really begins.
Despite this being just his fourth Grand Tour appearance the 27 year old has a highly enviable record in three-week stage races. Seventh overall on his Tour debut last year, Leo also placed a superb sixth for Team Sky at the Giro d'Italia in May, making him an ideal man to support Froome in the high mountains.
During the rest day in Pau we caught up with König to get his thoughts on the race so far and the challenge ahead.
Compared with last year I think it's been even more stressful, just because of the route and all of the tricky roads. We had cobbles again and also some weather. It's been pretty tough. I expected it to be bad but it turned out to be really, really stressful. But I think we managed to come through it really well as a team. Now the position we're in with Chris is the best we could have hoped for. We're in a really nice position.
I think what's different now is the position that I came into this Tour. I'm here as a domestique for Chris and that's the biggest difference. I wouldn't say you could ever be familiar with the Tour after one appearance. It's just so tough. Every year the route is different so you don't really know what to expect. So I would say I am a little bit more relaxed than year because we've got a really strong team. All the pressure is just not on me this time so that is the big difference.
On the first stage time trial I did quite well and I could see that the form is there. Immediately after the Giro I wasn't in great shape as I got sick two days later. That's quite normal when the body relaxes and shuts down, sometimes you can just pick up a virus. Then I did a couple of hard training sessions but not that much. Then before the start of the Tour I started to feel quite fresh. I think the physical and also mental freshness is there and I'm really ready for the mountains.
Definitely I'm looking forward to it. That's where my Tour actually starts. That is where I want to perform well and I want to really enjoy that. That's real cycling for me, riding up there in the Pyrenees and the Alps. It should be nice weather and really hot. I think we have a couple of days ahead which we can really enjoy. It will be really nice to defend the yellow jersey.
For sure the position we have is exceptional. After the team time trial the morale is really high. We are really on it. We lost by such a small margin but I think we performed one of the best TTTs ever in this team. It was just beautiful to be part of that squad and perform like that. It's just a little bit of a shame that we couldn't be on the podium as a team together and get the feelings from that.
It's been pretty straightforward. The only problem was that I woke up a little bit too early this morning and then I couldn't get back to sleep. We had a nice breakfast, did the press conference and then a training ride for two hours. Lunch, then a nap. I did a bit of physio work and some exercises this afternoon and then that's almost it. It's a quick day!
It's really big and every year it gets bigger and bigger. Especially after last year with the result I got on GC. Also with (Zdenek) Stybar winning a stage after 14 years for a Czech rider. It's really nice that a lot of people are following us and cheering us on.
