It’s taken a while, but last weekend showed that the Leopard Trek team is hitting form at just the right time. Fabian Cancellara dominated the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen with a long solo move, while Frank Schleck won the opening stage and the overall classification of the Critérium International.
It was only the third win of the year for the new team, following on from Dominic Klemme’s earlier success on Le Samyn, but the feeling now is that momentum is building and the riders will be a force in the Classics.
Cancellara’s display means that he will be closely watched this weekend in the Tour of Flanders. He was very impressive last season, going clear with Tom Boonen and then blowing the Belgian away over the course of a couple of hundred meters on the Kapelmuur. He was equally dominating in Paris-Roubaix, attacking a long way from the end and simply riding away from his rivals.
Team manager Brian Nygaard feels that the success is coming at a perfect time. “It is extremely important to us that two of our most prominent riders have shown that they are living up to expectations,” he told Politiken. “Fabian's and Frank's success has come at just the right time, for it is no secret that we lacked some wins.”
As was seen with Team Sky last year, the weight of expectation can stifle results early on, and so too the need to get things just right with a new squad. Nygaard said that he felt it was just a matter of time, and that earlier results showed that the team was close to delivering.
“We have always been absolutely convinced that our project was going to be successful, but it's great to have that confirmed by way of big results. It is perhaps first and foremost we ourselves who have noticed that the second place Daniel Bennati secured in Gent-Wevelgem was the eleventh of its kind for our riders so far this season. It says a lot about how often we have helped to shape events.”
Nygaard said that Cancellara had been training in Switzerland in advance of the Tour of Flanders, and that if all goes to plan, that he will also ride Amstel Gold this year.
After winning Flanders and Roubaix twelve months ago, he opted to give the Dutch Classic a miss, saying he was mentally and physically fatigued.