"I don't want to lose time on purpose" - Tobias Johannnessen ready to contest GC at Tour de France after 5th place at Dauphiné

Tobias Johannnessen was one of the many positive revelations of this year's Criterium du Dauphiné. The winner of 2021 Tour de l'Avenir has been more of a stage hunter in recent years, but 2025 seems to be the year the Norwegian climber finally steps up to become a GC leader for his team at the biggest level.

"We really wanted to have the fifth place in the GC," Johannessen takes us back to a pre-stage briefing in the Uno-X Mobility team bus. Their goal was evident when the men in red-yellow kits rolled up to the front of peloton to control a dangerous breakaway.

With 10th overall Enric Mas in the group, the Norwegian team could not be too careful about the situation. "Enric Mas was in the breakaway and they were going really fast."

Through a collective effort, they were able to keep the escapees on a short enough leash, which makes Johannessen very proud of his teammates' work: "They did a crazy job and every guy on the team pulled today."

Tour de France will be the next race on the menu for a large part of the team that raced in France this week. "I think we all got a really good training session before the big race in 3 weeks."

"This is the biggest GC result in a WorldTour stage race for the team so that's something we can be proud of," the 25-year-old rider highlights. "The race went much better than we expected and while we didn't come here with GC ambitions, day by day I felt better and better so to finish it off like this was great."

After a top-5 at Dauphiné, having lost only to three big favourites Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, and Florian Lipowitz - maybe it wouldn't be a bad call to target the GC also in July? The Norwegian climber doesn't want to reveal his cards just yet: "I don't want to lose time on purpose," he grins.