Irish rider Philip Deignan will start the Tour de Suisse tomorrow uncertain about his form, but knowing that a strong performance there should secure him a place in his first Tour de France.
The 26 year old was yesterday named as one of twelve Cervélo Test Team riders in the running for the nine places on the Tour de France squad. Some, such as 2009 points jersey winner Thor Hushovd, fellow stage victory Heinrich Haussler seem almost certain to get the nod, while Xavier Tondo and Carlos Sastre will be amongst the chief hopes in the mountains if they ride the race. Tondo pulled out of the Giro d’Italia close to the end of the race because of illness, while Sastre finished the race in eighth overall despite a herniated disk.
The latter won the event in 2008 and is expected to decide soon if he will compete again this year. Deignan’s strong climbing ability means that the Vuelta a España stage winner could be an important ally for Sastre, but he admitted to Velonation that he was not yet that confident that he’d get the nod.
“I don’t want to say too much but at the moment, considering how I feel, I think there’s a fairly slim chance that I will be going,” the Irishman from Letterkenny, Donegal said yesterday. “That’s going by what I am feeling at the moment. But we’ll see how things work out in Switzerland.
“From the start of the year, it was always in my programme that I would be on the long list. We didn’t really envisage all the stuff that was going to happen. It all comes down to this week - if I am in good shape and I think I can be in better condition in three weeks time, then I will go. If I am not, I won’t.”
He said that he plans to be fully frank with the team, and give them accurate feedback as to his chances. “I will be the first to say it if I am not good enough,” he pledged. “I don’t want to go to the Tour if I am not in good enough shape to go, and if there are guys who are going better than me. We will just see in a week or ten days what the situation is.”
Disrupted season:
Deignan won a stage and finished ninth overall in last year’s Vuelta, but injury and illness have disrupted his second year with the Cervélo Test Team. He describes the current season as one that has been disappointing thus far, and while he showed signs of improving form in the Tour of California, he came down sick and pulled out on the final stage.
“I became ill the night before the last day,” he said. “I got vomiting and diarrhoea, so couldn’t start the last stage. It is probably the worst case I have ever had – normally after one or two days you are feeling okay again, but this one was really, really bad. I couldn’t really train for almost a week.
“I’ve no idea why I got it so bad. I did all the tests to check if it was anything more serious, but I think it was just a really bad case of food poisoning. Anyway, any good form I got from California was affected and I had to start from scratch again. The team decided not to put me in the Dauphiné so I could have a little bit more time to get ready for the Tour of Switzerland.”
Having spent a week in Ireland, he returned to his base in Girona and trained there until yesterday. He then flew to Switzerland late on Thursday and will attend the team presentation today.
If he has the legs, he could secure a slot on the Tour team in the days ahead. But he is worried that he may have needed more time, and so doesn’t know what to expect from himself.
“I feel I am improving slowly. I could have done with another week or two to get ready for Switzerland,” he said. “I am still along way off from where I want to be, obviously, so I will see how I get through Suisse and we will see after that how things are in relation to the Tour.”
Post-Switzerland plans:
Amongst Deignan’s ambitions for the season is to become the Irish champion, succeeding recent winners Daniel Martin and Nicolas Roche, but he is unable to commit to riding the event just yet. If he doesn’t get the nod for the Tour, his participation is very likely; however if he does get the chance to race in France in July, Cervélo will determine whether or not he has the chance to win the distinctive white and green jersey.
“At the moment I plan on doing it, but it comes down to what the team want me to do after Switzerland. If they say they want me to go to Spain to prepare one hundred percent for the Tour, then I won’t go back to the nationals. It really depends on what they want.”
While he wouldn’t like to miss the race, he is clear in his mind that the Tour de France is the big goal. But if it does turn out that his California illness has sapped too much strength and training time, he’ll refocus and aim for the Grand Tour where he made his mark last year.
“There is another programme there if I don’t go to the Tour,” he said. “I’d do the Tour of Austria, Tour of Poland, Tour de Limousin and the Vuelta. I’ll have to see how things go; the season has been pretty disappointing thus far, but hopefully things change.”
The 2010 Tour de France begins in Rotterdam on July 3rd. Deignan’s compatriot Nicolas Roche is also aiming to secure a place via a strong showing in the Tour de Suisse; he suffered a torn hamstring in the Tour de Romandie, but clocked up a very impressive return to racing last Sunday when he sprinted in fourth in the GP Canton d’Argovie.