‘He’s pretending not to listen, but he can hear alright,’ says Roger Hammond, directeur sportif of Team Dimension Data. I’ve just brought up the topic of Peter Sagan, and Dimension Data’s head of performance, Rolf Aldag, has buried his head in invisible paperwork.
‘Er, I’m just planning the, er, bus schedule for the day,’ Aldag laughs.
‘When he hears “Sagan”, he tends to turn away,’ smiles Hammond. ‘We’ve moved on, but it’s still the first thought when we wake up.’
It’s 8.30am on Wednesday, July 12 in the Hotel Kyriad in Bergerac, which is situated – as so many Tour abodes are – in a grey industrial hinterland. More than a week has passed since the African team’s talismanic sprinter, Mark Cavendish, saw his dreams of breaking Eddy Merckx’s record…