Swiss specialist is still a threat in the classics but his team will not be powerful there
Thor Hushovd has now spent some time getting to know his new teammates at the Garmin-Cervélo team as it got together in the Cayman Islands. The big Norwegian World champion’s main targets, for the spring at least, will be the Classics; he spoke to Procycling.no about how he hopes the team will perform in the cobbled races, and about which of his opponents he fears the most.
With any number of Classics specialists in the Garmin-Cervélo team, including Tyler Farrar, Roger Hammond, Martijn Maaskant, Heinrich Haussler and David Millar, the team may find that eight starting places is not enough for the riders it wants to field. For Hushovd though, it is important to get the blend of riders right, rather than simply throwing the eight strongest riders at the race.
“I think the important thing is to get the right mix of riders,” he said. “We need those who will do a good job for the whole team. It helps to have six men who can all be top 10 in either Flanders or Paris-Roubaix; we need someone who has a nose for the right breaks, we need someone who can do a job along the way, and we need someone with the finish that makes it possible to win the race.
“Therefore it is not necessarily the eight best riders who will represent this team,” he summarised.
Despite the obvious class of the current Garmin-Transitions team, which Hushovd and a number of his Cervélo TestTeam riders are joining, it has yet to win a major Classic or a stage of the Tour de France.
“They have not won an awful lot,” he admitted, “and have to do something to get there.”
Because of this fact, although the team organisation will be the Garmin one, Cervélo’s experience gained in taking major victories will play a necessary part.
“In general, the team will probably be powered by Garmin's own principles,” he said. “Nevertheless, I believe we have a lot to teach them when it comes to optimizing the conditions ahead of the Classics.
“We have tested all of the wheels and custom-built bikes,” he explained. “Moreover, we have come a long way with support both before and during the races. It is important to receive the service you need with bottles and wheels if something happens along the way. If something happens in the leading group at Paris-Roubaix, the following cars can often be three to four minutes behind the leading group; that’s when you can lose a lot of time.”
Hushovd therefore believes that Garmin-Cervélo can be as ready as possible for the cobbled Classics, and the World champion knows the teams that he fears the most.
“I believe both BMC and Katusha will be strong next season,” he said. “Filippo Pozzato has been joined by Leif Hoste on the team. They are both riders who are often to be found among the top five in both the Paris-Roubaix and Flanders.”
No doubt the two teams that Hushovd mentioned will be strong; BMC with 2008 World champion Alessandro Ballan, multiple US champion and cobble specalist George Hincapie, as well as newly rectuited double under-23 Paris-Roubaix winner Taylor Phinney; and Katusha with Pozzato and Hoste reinforced recently by Luca Paolini.
One of the teams that he rather surprisingly didn’t mention though, was the new Luxembourg team of Fabian Cancellara; the winner of the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix (his second victory in l’Enfer du Nord) last year.
“Luxembourg is an exciting team with great good individual riders,” said Hushovd, after being specifically asked. “Cancellara as a rider is always dangerous. If he ends up alone in the leading group, he can just follow us and see who still has a couple of men with them. A domestique you can replace, but you can’t do it by changing the captain.
“When Norway can win the World Championships,” he said, “it says a little about what you can do with one rider in the finalé.”
The Luxembourg team therefore, will not be all that strong in the Classics, but that will not stop its Classics captain from being highly dangerous.
“I'm scared by Cancellara, but not by the Luxembourg project,” he explained. “They are ranked as one of the world's best teams, and it is a good team, but it was you who mentioned the team. If I select those that I think are strongest during the spring Classics, I still say Katusha and BMC.”
Garmin-Cervélo though, with its squad of Classics specialists, will be one of the teams to reckon with, he thinks.
“It is a bigger team and a better team,” he said. “Our depth gives us good opportunities in the classics and in the sprints. That is where I think the chances are greatest to assert ourselves as a team.”
Of his new teammates there is one rider that the world champion is looking forward to working with, someone who is able to work for his captain seemingly on any terrain.
“Johan Van Summeren is a real work horse that is good at everything,” said Hushovd. “It will be great to have him on the team. He is a dream rider that goes equally well on the cobblestones and in the mountains.”
After the Garmin-Cervélo gathering on the Cayman Islands, Hushovd is spending two weeks in the Canary Islands before returning home to Norway for Christmas. In the new year he will attend two more team training camps in Spain, starting his racing season at the Tour of Oman in February.