Having seen Robert Gesink’s strength up close due to his role at the Tour of Oman, Eddy Merckx is in little doubt that the Dutchman has what it takes to take to win cycling’s biggest event. He’s previously taken sixth overall in both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España and Merckx now believes that he’s riding better than ever.
“It was a perfect performance,” he told De Telegraaf. “I did not expect Gesink to be in this form so early in the season. I think that he has made another step up. In my view, Gesink is a candidate to win the Tour.”
Merckx’s assessment will be for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Gesink showed very strong climbing ability at this early point of the season to put 47 seconds into his nearest rival, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky Procycling). He attacked two kilometres from the top and roared away from the rest.
Secondly, his performance in the time trial was the best such display against the clock in his career. The course may have been more difficult than a pure tester’s course, but he nevertheless showed a clear improvement over the form which lost him last year’s Tour de Suisse in the time trial.
Another factor is his age; the Dutchman is still just 24 years old, and clearly has room for further improvement. He’ll naturally grow stronger over the next three to four years.
Merckx doesn’t think it’ll take that long for him to be chasing the yellow jersey, though. “That [Tour contention] will be sooner than most people think,” he warned. “This year’s Tour de France is on his mind.”
Gesink trained hard for the Tour of Oman so that he could make a display there and win the race for his late father, who died in October after a mountain bike crash. Next up for him is Tirreno-Adriatico, where he will have further opportunity to show what he can do and to reinforce Merckx’s feeling that Rabobank has a big threat for the Maillot Jaune.