Watch out for this guy, Jean Christophe Peraud. A strong MTB rider – silver in the Olympics behind the invincible Julien Absalon – he’s the reigning French TT champion, having upstaged the likes of Chavanel and Moreau last summer.
He won that title with a very aero position but his MTB background allows him to ride hard for a long period of time and the thing is, he’s not a time triallist. His build is more suited to climbing, indeed he finished in sixth spot behind Contador yesterday in the Algarve.
He’s one of the cleverer French riders, spending his career outside the oldskool methods of the French pro teams means he knows how to train properly.
By contrast Pierrick Fedrigo recently said he didn’t know how many kilometres he’d done over the winter. It makes you want to shake the guy, Fedrigo has huge talent but he’s wasting it by spending his winter amusing himself with mere rides rather than serious training sessions.