After a breakthrough performance last year, Carlos Rodriguez will return to the Tour de France in 2024 as a marked man. Beating both Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar to victory on stage 14 twelve months ago, the Spaniard is confident he can once again compete with the very best this time around.
"The idea is to do better than last year, stay with those in front and accept the result I'm going to get. it's difficult to set a goal because it doesn't just depend on me, but also on others," previews the 23-year-old of the INEOS Grenadiers, in a pre 2024 Tour de France conversation with EFE. "If I could have good sensations, stay in front and fight with the best , I would go home happy."
Taking the aforementioned stage win and finishing 5th overall at the 2023 Tour de France, Rodriguez has continued to impress since, adding the GC at the Tour de Romandie and stages of the Itzulia Basque Country and the Criterium du Dauphine to his palmares so far this season. "I think I'm getting there," he assesses optimistically of his current level. "The preparation went as well as we had hoped."
Rodriguez also doesn't have too long to wait before his first target of the 2024 Tour de France arrives. The Spaniard is keen to impress and showcase himself in the opening week on the Col du Galibier. "It's a stage that can leave its mark, but so can the previous two," he previews, full of excitement and optimism. "It will be very important to be ready, attentive and if some opportunity presents itself, try to seize it."
Joined and supported by the likes of Egan Bernal, Tom Pidcock and Geraint Thomas for the INEOS Grenadiers at the upcoming Grand Tour, Rodriguez seems to have more than an outside chance at cracking the Grand Tour podium for the first time in his career.
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