After four seasons at Quick Step, Carlos Barredo is to join the Rabobank team in 2011. The 29-year-old Spanish climber from Oviedo, who won yesterday’s fifteenth stage of the Vuelta a España to Lagos de Covadonga has signed a two-year contract with the Dutch team.
"We were looking to balance the team with someone who can play a supporting role particularly in the tough stages of the Grand Tours,” said Rabobank’s general manager Erik Breukink. “Barredo was the ideal candidate. He will last with the team leaders in the big mountain stages. This, he has proved often enough.”
As well as the sporting side, Breukink expects Barredo to fit in well on a personal level with the other Rabobank riders. “Moreover, we feel that he fits well with our team,” he added. “He is a good friend of Juanma Garate and others."
Barredo is riding his second Grand Tour of the year, having completed July’s Tour de France. During that race he was one of the most aggressive riders, in more ways than one, being part of a number of breakaways; he came close to winning stage 16 into Pau after a solo attack, but had also previously risked being ejected from the race after stage 6 when he was involved in a fist fight with Caisse d’Epargne’s Rui Costa.
Barredo’s on-the-road aggression, as well as his willingness to work for others, is a big reason behind Rabobank’s desire to sign him up.
"We are stronger in depth,” Breukink continued, “but we don’t only the ride Tour [de France], but three Grand Tours. We want to draw climbers from a larger arsenal. The choice of Barredo is deliberate; he is not the man going for the standings himself in the Grand Tours, but is subordinate to the leader. When he gets a little more freedom, he go for victory himself, like Lagos de Covadonga on Sunday."
Before his Lagos de Covadonga win, Barredo’s previous biggest result was his victory in the 2009 Clasica San Sebastian.
"We have now the team is almost complete,” he concluded, “with just a few formalities.”