Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) finished the 2011 season in fourth place in the International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour standings. The 32-year-old Catalan finished first in the season-long ranking in 2010, meaning that this year’s classification could be seen as a disappointment. As he was beaten by an almost unstoppable Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) though, and the winners of the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia in Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) and Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard), he can look back on his season with pride.
"In any case, these ratings show real consistency and make me feel good about the last season," said ‘Purito’.
Rodriguez’ season did not get off to the best of starts, where he failed to score a WorldTour point until April, but this was down to a series of health problems that he suffered from in the spring.
"First I suffered a stomach virus and then had to undergo a very strong anti-inflammatory treatment to help remove a cyst on my hip,” he explained. “I was surprised with my victory in Pais Vasco, since in Tirreno-Adriatico I had the worst feelings in a race since I became a professional."
His Pais Vasco victory, which came in the first stage of the six-day Vuelta, was to be his only one for some time though; second place behind Gilbert in both the Amstel Gold Race and la Flèche Wallonne, were to set up a series of frustrating near misses.
"My two second places left me bittersweet,” he said. “You’re always like that when you get so close to victory. In Liège-Bastogne-Liège I felt dead, and was suffering from bad constipation that I couldn’t shake until well into the Giro [d’Italia]"
Despite the lack of victories in the big one-day races of the year though, Rodriguez felt that his Classics season went very well.
"I think this was my best year at the Classics. I rode five and managed to take podium finishes in Amstel, Flèche and Lombardia, fourth place in San Sebastian and "the worst" Liege, "
Sitting out the Tour, Rodriguez rode both the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España. His frustrating near-misses period extended through the Italian race, where he took second into Castelfidardo and third into Sestrière, but his winning ways had returned by the Vuelta where he took two stages and led the race for a day.
Even though he finished fifth in the Giro and only nineteenth in the Vuelta, it was his home race where he felt the best.
"As my feelings went, I preferred the Vuelta,” he explained. “I'm sure if I had not had two bad crashes, I could have had a good finish overall, even tried to fight for another stage, and won myself the green jersey. But looking on the bright side and see that I rode a great race, it has been by far the best year I’ve had."
Rodriguez rested in the July, as the rest of the peloton took on the Tour de France, but won two stages of the Dauphiné Libéré in June and took overall victory in the Tour of Burgos in August; results that he puts down to "the culmination of good team work, of which I feel very proud."
Rodriguez had previously spent his career in Spanish teams, including four seasons at Caisse d’Epargne between 2006 and 2009. It was his switch to Katusha in 2010 that saw the 32-year-old hit the big time though and, unsurprisingly, he wants to stay with the team for much longer.
"I hope to stay tied to my teammates for a long time, because without them I would not have been able to achieve these victories,” he said. “I think the new signings are going to contribute a lot to the whole, I hope to continue working in the same manner and to be successful with the help of my teammates."
The Katusha team recently underwent a change at the top, with Andre Tchmil making room for former Gerolsteiner boss Hans Michael Holczer. Rodriguez is confident that this will not affect his staying with the Russian team however.
"It is true that my renewal agreement for 2013 with the old Katusha management was almost done. Then came the change in the management and now we are negotiating with the new leaders of the team. I'm sure things won’t change much, as I see good intentions on their part.
“I've always felt comfortable and so far have not given me any reason to change that."