Rabobank’s Juan Manuel Garate will be starting his twelfth season as a professional in 2011, so it’s no surprise that he knows exactly how to go about things. In an interview with the Diario Vasco, Garate looks forward to the new year, and looks back at a 2010 season which was professionally successful but personally disappointing.
As usual Garate will be starting his season early on, but with the Dutch team’s main objective much further off, he knows exactly when he will beed to be at his best.
“Typically, at Paris-Nice I’d already have a good level of form,” he explained, “but more importantly for Rabobank is [for me] to be good for the Tour in order to help Robert Gesink, to try to put him among the top three in Paris.”
The former Spanish champion already knows how his spring will shape up, and most of the rest of his season too. He will begin with the races of the Mallorca Challenge, then ride the Vuelta a Andalusia, Paris-Nice, the Volta a Catalunya, the Vuelta a Castilla y León, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
“In April I will have a break and then I’ll ride the Tour of California and the Dauphiné Libéré,” he confirmed. “Before the Tour we will meet for two weeks in Saint-Moritz [Switzerland]. After the tour I’ll ride the Clásica [San Sebastian] and the Vuelta a España.”
Having been a professional rider for more than a decade, Garate knows how to manage his condition and doesn’t care about putting on a few pounds when he’s not racing.
“I’ve put on six kilos, but I do not care,” he said, “it’s easy to lose them. During the first block of the season I’ll be a kilo overweight, it's not a problem to have a good level. It's about being right where you are asked to be good [by the team].”
This year the two Spaniards at Rabobank, Garate and three-time World champion Oscar Freire, will be joined by Luis León Sanchez form Caisse d’Epargne, and Carlos Barredo, Garate’s old friend from Quick Step. Although they all speak the same language though, they won’t be riding the same races.
“[I’ll race with] Luis León at the start of the season,” he explained, “in Mallorca, Paris-Nice, Flèche Wallonne and Liège, although he won’t ride the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. I’ll ride with Barredo at the Tour.”
As the 2006 Spanish champion, and a stage winner at the Giro, Tour (the Mont Ventoux stage in the 2009 race) and Vuelta, Garate is used to getting at least one good quality victory in most seasons. The closest he came this year though was third place in stage 7 of the Tour into Station des Rousses, behind Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step).
While the year was short on personal success though, Garate’s main mission was accomplished in July.
“It has not been a spectacular year,” he said, “it never is when you don’t win, but I did my job. We placed [Robert] Gesink in the top ten at the Tour, which was the target.”
[Rabobank also helped Denis Menchov to third place in Paris, but Garate didn’t mention this; possibly because the team’s priority is to see success for the Dutchman, and Russian Menchov has since moved on to Geox-TMC – ed]
“The season when you didn’t win feels like you have missed the target,” he continued. “In the Vuelta I could not get into any good breaks. I wasn’t at the level I thought I was going to be.”
With Rabobank’s 2011 priority to get Gesink onto the Tour de France podium Garate should have a busy year. As one of the foremost breakaway specialists in the peloton though, you can be sure to see him out front pretty often too.