GUARDIAN ANGELS

Behind, or indeed in front of, every team leader there’s a rider or staff member who is particularly crucial to their success. Peter Cossins speaks to a quartet of these often unsung heroes who play vital roles in Tour de France success

- Peter Cossins

ROGER KLUGE AND CALEB EWAN

Kluge is lead-out man for Lotto-Soudal’s Ewan: The main role I play for Caleb is to position him and Jasper [de Buyst] in the final, to get them into a good position in the last kilometre, on the right wheels, and to start the sprint or to hold them steady if necessary. Some days, I’ll also keep him out of the wind in the last 4 to 5km. Frederik Frison usually does that job, but if he’s not around, then I do it. I’ve not done so many Grand Tours, but I’m getting older and I’m quite experienced, so I know exactly what I need to do to be in position, and that means that he can be a bit more, let’s say, relaxed, knowing that we will take him to exactly the place that he wants to be.

When it comes to the sprint, we know each other pretty well now, so we don’t have to shout at each other any more. It’s instinctive. For example, on the stage to Ile de Ré [10], it was important to be in a good position with 25km to go just before the bridge to the island. I invested a lot of energy at that point. Then Fred took over and led Caleb further up the bunch approaching the bridge. He found his way onto Sam Bennett’s wheel and stuck to it. I went up in the last kilometre just in case he needed me to lead him up, but he was glued to that wheel and he started his sprint there.

Encountering challenges

We lost John Degenkolb and Philippe Gilbert early on in the race and then went down to five because we lost Steff [Cras] in the Pyrenees. He would normally do the job of chasing the break. He’d also be the rider who would stay with Caleb in the mountains. So, if we needed to chase back up to the gruppetto, he would do it. But since he went home, we’ve had to use Thomas [De Gendt] for that. Up to that point, he could save his energy for the days when he wanted to go in the break.