Team Saxo Bank has made the difficult decision of leaving world time trial championship runner-up Gustav Larsson off their Tour de France team. The Danish squad revealed its Tour lineup today, naming the riders who will join sure-bets Andy and Frank Schleck plus multiple world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara in July.
The squad will be boosted by the presence of Jens Voigt, Matti Breschel, Chris Anker Sorensen, Jakob Fuglsang, Nicki Sørensen and the experienced veteran Stuart O’Grady. Larsson is first reserve and will join the team if any other rider cannot take part.
“We have ten riders on our Team of which all are ready and fit to do the race and that has made the job of selecting the line-up extremely difficult,” said team owner Bjarne Riis. “That's why the decision has been made for tactical reasons. It has been a problem of pure luxury but it's not easy telling a rider to stay home when you know he would have done a great job in the race.
“However, we are now looking forward to a Tour de France with Team Saxo Bank in front of the race.”
Frank Schleck highlighted his excellent form in the Tour de Suisse when he won a stage and then dramatically scooped the final overall victory in the closing time trial. Fabian Cancellara took the opening time trial and has taken a number of other victories this year, including the Tour of Flanders - Paris-Roubaix double. Andy Schleck has not yet hit top form but he was a strong second behind Alberto Contador in last year’s Tour, and is viewed by many as a possible winner.
Fuglsang was third in the Tour de Suisse and will make his Tour debut determined to both ride well for the Schlecks and also to grab a stage if the opportunity presents itself. He is a two-time winner of the Tour of Denmark and is recognised as one of the country’s best young talents.
The other riders are all strong and are certainly capable of both stage wins and supporting the leaders.
Riis previously said that he was struggling to make the final choice of who to take and who to leave behind. "I expect that I will take a few more days before making the decision. There are several details that I have gathered, and I will again discuss the situation with my closest colleagues.”
He said that there would be tactical reasoning behind the final section. “The reflections are in fact based on whether we should concentrate to be in a strong position in the last difficult week in the Pyrenees, or if we should really focus on the first week and make it hard from the start.”
The team’s best performance in the Tour was in 2008, when Frank Schleck wore the yellow jersey and then Carlos Sastre took over on Alpe d’Huez, taking the yellow tunic to Paris.