“How many microphones are there here?” asks Baptiste Veistroffer, sipping from a can of Fanta. “One, two, three, four,” he begins to count, but his Lotto Intermarché team bus is waiting and the tally is taking longer than he thought. “Let’s say around 15.”
As recently as a week ago, the Frenchman had never known such intense media attention. He was, with the utmost respect, a bit of a nobody – a modest second-year pro, riding his debut Grand Tour. The UCI rankings placed him as the 1,266th best rider in the world. Journalists had had no reason to speak to him. But now, with a swarm of microphones closing in on him in the post-stage mixed zone, he seems surprisingly at ease. These huddles are part of his new daily routine.
