While there was never much doubt that the dynamic Danish duo of Michael Morkov and Alex Rasmussen would find the same success on the road that they experienced on the track, it's another thing entirely to take those expectations and turn them into results.
Alex Rasmussen has blossomed rapidly into a threat in any sprint on the road, and seemingly, with each passing race, he gets stronger. It appears that it won't be long before the incredibly fast finisher will be going toe to toe with the sport's fast finishers in the sport's biggest races.
Michael Morkov, however, has had a slower rise to the top. The 25 year old Dane doesn't have the explosive finish of Rasmussen, but he's still plenty fast and powerful. 2009, Morkov's first year on the ProTour with Saxo Bank, was a slow, cautious year with a lot of learning and few results. 2010 has been a further step forward. The track standout completed his first Grand Tour in May when he finished the Giro in 129th place. While the result was nothing to write home about, it was a significant step forward.
The recently completed, Tour du Limousin, opened the doors wide for Morkov though. A third place in the opening bunch sprint, followed by a 7th place in the decisive 45 km time trial in Stage 2, and a 6th place on the final day resulted in a 4th overall, 90 seconds behind race winning teammate, Gustav Larsson.
After a tough final stage defending the lead of Larsson, Saxo Bank DS, Bradley McGee lavished praise on the Dane, "Again, Michael Morkov raced really well. He has come incredibly far this season, and the result here maybe be his breakthrough on the road."
For Morkov, the step he took at the Tour du Limousin was also apparent.
"That is definitely the biggest achievement in my career. It's one thing to get solid stage finishes and individual results, it's something else to finish fourth place overall in such a big race, which has been so challenging for all three road stages and the long time trial. It's a result that I'm really proud of," said Morkov to Danish news outlet, feltet.dk.
Morkov had to work hard to defend his 4th place on the final day. He had one second on the soon to be retiree, Christophe Moreau, 14 seconds on Sky's Thomas Lovkvist, and 15 seconds and Tour de France double stage winner, Sylvain Chavanel. Morkov was quick to downplay his performance against them, but admitted that he was pleased just to be able to do cross swords with such big names.
"It is clear that they are not in Tour shape right now, but it is still nice to be able to go up against these talented riders who have such a huge background at a high level."
It has been said countless times, but it never ceases to surprise when a rider confesses that the race for a high spot on GC is both a test of one's physical as well as mental mettle. Morkov is the newest racer to be presented with the blunt truth of just how difficult it is to vie for overall glory.
"It has been a new experience for me to race for the GC. It is hard both physically and mentally, and then everyday, I tried to go for a result in the finals, so I am really looking to get a rest day tomorrow."
Up next, Morkov will be taking part in this Sunday's GP Plouay. The difficult race, which uses the old Worlds course, will serve as the latest ProTour one day race following the Vattenfall Cyclassics last weekend. Morkov is in possession of some solid form right now, but he's not sure how he'll recover from the efforts at the Tour du Limousin.
"I'll see what I can do on Sunday. Plouay is a really great race, so it will be great to be a part of it, but now I just need to see if I've still got something left in the tank."