At some point it has to pay off. In the first very fast part of stage 11 of the Tour de France, the riders of the FDJ team were very combative, trying to make it into the right breakaway before Arnaud Démare and Steve Morabito joined the move.

"I'm not very comfortable in the mountains," said Arnaud Démare. "But I wanted to have fun. I was not necessarily in the right element but everyone tried, Thibaut [Pinot], Jérémy Roy and then Steve and I went. At one point, I was dropped a little of his wheel but I came back before the Col d'Aspin alongside Julien Simon. We did  a good ride and I suffered less than those in gruppetto. It will reward me in the future and I'm happy."

Demare fell behind in the first kilometers of the climb of the Tourmalet. Unfortunately, Morabito did not hold onto his companions.

"I am not used to go in a breakaway," he says. "I'm not effective. I tried several times, a little too often and when we went, I was already dead. Arnaud Démare made an attack and I followed it. After the Tourmalet I was cooked. I missed the energy I had used in the beginning and that is unfortunate. We had carthe blanche to try. Thibaut tried first. He used a lot of energy but no one wanted to go with him. I saw the good break, I was there but I was already dead."

For his part, Pinot was dropped on the Tourmalet but he has already explained that a stage victory is his only goal..

“I used the little strength I had left to try and go into the break, I was in the attempt before the break. But when I see how it went later in the day, I have no regrets. I didn't have legs again today. We try to understand why it doesn't work, why I an't reach my normal level. I'm far from my best, I don't manage to raise the tempo. I try to understand, but I can't. We're going to have blood tests to see it something's wrong. If I didn't believe I still have chances, I wouldn't be here. Mentally, I'm fine, but the problem is the legs.There's a problem for sure.”