In Ussel before stage nine, EF Education‑EasyPost’s directeur sportifs gathered on the team bus to finalise a last‑minute plan to hunt the day’s breakaway and try to win the stage. Charly Wegelius led the 9am meeting at a budget‑hotel car park near Périgueux, saying that although much season planning happens after the route release, the team’s most important decisions are made on the bus each morning; Tom Southam called those talks where they decide what to do and where. The squad targets about nine opportunity days this Tour with riders such as Ben Healy, Sean Quinn and Richard Carapaz available for breakaways; Healy’s 2025 stage six win and spell in yellow underline the approach. Organisers shortened stage nine by 30km because of a red‑alert heatwave and moved the intermediate sprint to 14km, changes Wegelius showed and adjusted in VeloViewer that materially altered likely breakaway composition. The team treats stages by priority, skips pure sprints and GC days in its plans, and emphasizes adaptability, shifting from months of preparation to rapid, on‑the‑day tactical choices that dictate who goes in the break and when the squad commits resources.
