No wins, but lots of pride for Uno-X in Tour de France debut

Right until the sound of popping champagne corks could be heard in Paris, the eight Uno-X riders clattered down the stairs of the bright yellow and red team bus each morning in their first-ever appearance at the Tour de France with a tangible air of quiet satisfaction and pride at what they have achieved.

From veteran sprinter and Classics star Alexander Kristoff, 36, to 2022 U-23 World TT champion S?ren W?renskjold, 13 years his junior, Norway's first team to participate in the Tour have not won any stages – their pre-race goal.

However, their fighting spirit has seen them a lot of praise from experienced rival team managers such as Rod Ellingworth of Ineos Grenadiers, impressed with the way the Norwegian Pro Continental squad is finding their way in the world's biggest bike race.

Highpoints have included former Tour de l'Avenir winner Tobias Johannessen, 23, taking third in the Cauterets stage and a sixth at Courchevel. Jonas Abrahamsen was also part of the four-man breakaway that fended off the bunch at the finish in Bourg-en-Bresse earlier this week and Kristoff also notched up a sixth place in one bunch sprint in Moulins in the second week.

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Uno-X team sports director Gabriel Rasch pointed out to Cyclingnews that the key thing is that the team are not letting themselves be overly impressed by the fact they are rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest squads on the planet, and that so far they have been keeping themselves in the thick of the action nearly every day.

"Obviously we're a small team coming here, and we have hopes and expectations of a stage win," Rasch said.

"But the way our guys have been riding, the way we've been attacking the stages… we have had many top tens and we still have eight guys here, all healthy. So overall, it's gone much better than expected."

Rasch said two key takeaways for 2024 have been established.

"We've learned that there are definitely opportunities we can take, for one thing. Secondly, we've been telling the guys since the start to save energy and I think now, after 18 days, they understand why," he says with a half-smile in the interview which took place during the final week. "So that's another lesson."

"We have been smart in the way we're riding, we've held the guys back and told them to save energy."

Rasch, speaking ahead of Saturday's brutal mountain stage then pointed to it as a way that may suit Johannessen, who indeed ended up coming ninth.

Rasch's admiration for his team's ability to defend themselves on all manner of terrain and in a race where they are fighting with the top names becomes clear when asked how many times he has had riders coming back to the team car complaining about how hard the Tour is.

"To be honest, not so many. They're a bit blown away by the level of the top two guys [Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Poga?ar] but on the other hand, on a stage like the Col de la Loze and going over the Tourmalet a guy like Tobias has really been up there. In those finales, he has been up against the best. That's really promising for the future."

At the other end of the spectrum, Rasch has been impressed by Kristoff's racing as well, although he admits that as a collective, their lack of experience in the Tour sprints could have cost them and so too did using up too much energy to get into position.

"The best day was when he got sixth at Moulins, that could have been amazing because he was coming up with a good speed. But on some days we've fallen a little far behind coming into the last three or four kilometres, and then afterwards S?ren W?renskjold and Alex have been able to move up. But when when they get there [to the front] they've already been on the limit.

"So they arrive, but all the while the other sprinters have been freely drifting a bit. So that's at least one reason why the sprints haven't worked out."

The team showed that they also had varied options for a fast finish on the Champs Elysées, with W?renskjold crossing the line in eighth place on Sunday's finale.

But it's not just in the high mountains and sprint stages where Uno-X have been active. In the third-week breakaways stages like Thursday, Abrahamsen finished third behind Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep) and on Friday Anthon Charmig and Rasmus Tiller were both in the big break of 32 through the foothills of the Jura.

"We thought that Thursday it'd be 50-50 for the break or a bunch sprint, but then Kasper and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) timed it well, staying a minute ahead until Pascal Eenkhoorn (Lotto-Dstny) got across and made it four in the move," Rasch explained.

"Even up to 20 kilometres to go, it looked like a bunch sprint, but then when Alpecin started running out of guys, it all began to change."

Abrahamsen and Tiller had both been planned for the break, he said, "but we initially hoped it'd be a bigger move. Abrahamsen, though, is very keen, he always wants it. If you tell him to be in the break - it doesn't matter how many people are in it, he'll be there."

That kind of upbeat attitude is typical across the board at Uno-X in the Tour this year, though, Rasch says, and apart from offering them some real high points, it's all great fuel for a potential return to the race in the future.

"It's gone so much better than we expected – and off the bike too, we've got a good atmosphere in the team, a good group feeling. So that's another really good reason to hope, too, that we'll have an invitation for next year as well."