Nicki Sørensen is one of Saxo Bank-SunGard’s senior riders, having ridden for the Danish team for ten years of his twelve-year career. The 35-year-old Danish champion is looking forward to another busy season, but this time he wants to be ready to ride at the World Championships in his nation’s capital Copenhagen, he told feltet.dk.
“I’ve got a really good programme,” he told the Danish website, “with many of my favourite races. My best years have been when I’ve ridden a lot of races and I will again next year. The highlights as usual will be the classics and the Tour de France before I ride the Vuelta, after which I hope to be sharp for the World Championships.”
Exactly what his role will be in these races he isn’t sure; in recent years he has ridden in the service of the Schleck brothers, but both have now left the team for their own Luxembourg Cycling Project. The pending doping case of the team’s new Grand Tour captain, Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, who tested positive for a trace amount of clenbuterol during the race, hangs over the team’s plans.
“It really depends on what the situation with Alberto is,” he explained. “He is a rider that in every race he competes in he races to win; in that case I will obviously ride for him.
“Now, if the worst should happen and he gets a suspension then I will be released and mine becomes a freer role and so I’ll be able to take my chances and go for it.”
This year Sørensen rode the Giro d’Italia before going on to ride the Tour de France; he then finished his season after the two Canadian ProTour races in September. For 2011, he will do things differently, with a break after the Ardennes classics, and will be able to build up to the Tour as he would like to. This could be especially important as he is planning to maintain his form right up to the Worlds in October.
"I get an optimal run-up more or less,” he said. “It will be two, maybe three, stage races and then a break before, so it's how I want it. But right now I’ll certainly ride the Dauphiné Libéré and most likely the Tour of Slovenia and then maybe another stage race.
“This year I rode the Giro more or less right after the classics,” he explained, “and as I saw it, it was anything but an optimal preparation. As I see it for most riders, doing the Giro is not an optimal preparation for the Tour, and certainly not if you also ride the classics.
“Also in the Tour,” he added, “neither Cadel Evans or Ivan Basso [who both rode the Giro to win, with Basso coming out on top] was quite sharp; additionally, the Giro even harder next year. Meanwhile, the climbs they have in the Giro are significantly harder than in other races, and also in relation to the Tour. It is certainly not a race you just float through."
Although he will be approaching the Tour with what he hopes will be optimal preparation, he is treating the race just as seriously, and expects it to be no earlier than usual.
“I’ve ridden the Tour many times [2011 will be his ninth time at the race – ed],” he said, “but it’s certainly a race that I don’t underestimate because it’s just massively hard for everyone, and certainly for me. It’s a race that I’m looking forward to but I’m also a little afraid.”
Saxo Bank, and CSC before it, has always had one of the main contenders for the race, or at least one of its major characters. In the early years Sørensen was riding for French star Laurent Jalabert, later for Ivan Basso, the 2008 victory of Carlos Sastre, then finally the Schleck brothers. Assuming the current Tour champion Contador escapes suspension, the 2011 Tour will be another one of service for the Dane.
“To ride the Tour on this team means that if one day you are feeling a little bit bad you can’t simply go to the back and ride quietly through. You quite simply have to be sharp every day, which is of course a pressure, but of course it’s the biggest race and so it’s exciting to ride it.”
Although he is missing the Giro this year, Sørensen is still hoping to ride two Grand Tours in 2011. In recent years the Vuelta a España has been used by many riders to hone their form on the approach to the World championships. This time around Sorenesen will be no exception, with the Worlds being held in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.
“As it looks right now I’ll be riding the Vuelta,” he said, “but this of course may change. Then I want to ride the Worlds; it would obviously be huge to ride the World Championships on home soil.”
Sørensen, according to feltet.dk, will begin his season at the Tour Down Under in Australia on January 16th-23rd.