Former Tour de l'Avenir winner Bauke Mollema is having a great Giro d'Italia. The 23-year-old Rabobank youngster is 12th in the general classification, likely to be his final ranking, given his more than three-minute lead over his next competitor.
After a stellar first two weeks, Mollema's motor started to stutter a little. But in yesterday's mountain stage he was riding with the favorites once again. "I am surprised myself about it," Mollema said on rabosports.nl. "I had the same good feeling as in the first two weeks. Maybe the effects of Sunday [stage to Monte Zoncolan -ed.] were still noticeable." He admitted that at the beginning of stage 20 he wasn't still feeling right. "But with the very first climb I felt great again."
At one point in the end, "when I saw how quickly Cunego dropped back," Mollema briefly thought even more was possible. But he couldn't answer the acceleration by Cadel Evans three kilometers from the end, eventually finishing eighth, 50 seconds down on stage winner Johann Tschopp and 36 seconds after Evans. "That doesn't take away my good feeling from this Tour. [Saturday] I was even slightly better again, I had my good rhythm back."
The important lesson for him was that "I did not get worse over the course of three really tough weeks." Mollema thus justified his free role within the Rabobank squad. But he added that he was happy that the end of the race is near. "I was feeling better today, but I also sense the fatigue."
The final stage in the mountains was made tougher because some riders, who were still in the top ten in the overall, attacked early. "They [Liquigas] did not want for [Carlos] Sastre and Vino [Alexander Vinokourov] to ride too far away. But I was still doing OK on the final climb, I was in a good group."
Another big lesson learned for Mollema was descending. "Going down was not one of my strengths," he said. "The descent from the Gavia was described as dangerous in the roadbook and rightfully so. But I never had a problem, another sign for my increased confidence. In this Giro I made quite a leap in good descending. For several reasons those three weeks were a very successful discovery tour."
Mollema has shown that he can be the next stage race hope for the Rabobank squad. In 2007 he won the Circuito Montañes as well as the Tour de l'Avenir. In 2008, he finished fourth in the Vuelta a Castilla y León and seventh in the Tour of Germany.
That was followed by a relatively short 2009 season, which started with a 16th place in the Tour of California. After a lackluster spring season it was discovered that Mollema suffered from mononucleosis. He took the summer off and did not start racing again until September.
This year things were well again in the early part of the season, where he took fifth overall in the Vuelta a Andalucia - Ruta Del Sol. In his first Giro he is set to get a 12th place - a good foundation for a career as a Grand Tour stage racer.