As a veteran of five Tours de France, including a stage victory in the 2008 edition, Kurt Asle Arvesen might expect to be on most team’s roster for the race. In his second year with Team Sky though, the former Norwegian champion has been passed over a second time; he now concedes that, at the age of 36, he may have ridden his last Tour.
“This is obviously disappointing for me,” Arvesen told NRK Sport after the British team’s roster was announced. “Now the Tour de France chapter in my career as an active cyclist has ended.”
Although he misses out for a second year in succession, Arvesen thinks that the Sky team is the right one for guiding Bradley Wiggins in his bid to become the first British rider to make the Tour podium.
“Although I am disappointed, I have no problem accepting that team officials have chosen the team they have selected,” he conceded. “They have ridden together a lot this year, they won the Critérium du Dauphiné together, and are well knit.
“The team is incredibly good, and better than last year,” he added.
Despite an unspectacular season, in terms of personal results, so far, and having ridden the Tour de Suisse where most of the Tour roster rode the Critérium du Dauphiné, Arvesen thinks that had he made the Tour team he would have acquitted himself well.
“I believe that I am in good form, and know from experience that I could have put in a good performance in France,” he said. “But not everybody knows me as well as I know myself. This is something I simply have to accept, there were five other riders better than me; there are so many others in the same situation now.”
Arvesen rode every Tour between 2004 and 2009, barring the 2006 race, first in the service of Ivan Basso, then Carlos Sastre, and then for Andy and Fränk Schleck. His finest moment came in that 2008 race when he outsprinted Martin Elmigee and Alessandro Ballan, who were all that remained of a twelve-man breakaway between Lannemezan and Foix.