37 year old Astana captain pleased with first part of the year. Next stop: Tour de France
Alexandre Vinokourov might not have been able to notch up a major Classic victory this spring, but there's no question - he has enjoyed an excellent first phase of his likely final year as a professional cyclist.
Today, the 37 year old Kazakh stood on the final step of the overall podium with Tony Martin and Cadel Evans ahead of him and called an end to his spring campaign. Next stop: Tour de France.
Before his big goal in July comes into focus, Vinokourov can look back at a satisfying first ever experience at the Tour de Romandie.
"It was my first participation in the Tour de Romandie, and I am pleased to have won a stage. I have no regrets concerning the general classification. Yesterday, I did a good time trial, and I gave the maximum, but Cadel was impressive in the second part, so he deserves his victory today."
Despite the fact that a bunch sprint was on the menu for today's stage, Vinokourov once again showed that he is less than keen to settle for anything less than attacking and gave it a good go in the latter moments of the stage. It wasn't to be though.
"Team Sky kept the pace too high. It doesn't always work!"
Vinokourov has been anything but quiet this spring once he opened up his 2011 account at the third stage of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco on the sixth of April. Before that - there was next to no news from the two-time winner of Liege-Bastogne-Liege. In the twenty five days that followed his win, he was all over the leaderboards.
He took another third place at the Tour of the Basque Country before finishing 8th overall, and 5th on the points classification. The Amstel Gold Race followed, and he managed only a quiet 17th, before making amends a few days later with 4th at La Fleche Wallonne. Liege-Bastogne-Liege was ruined by a late, extremely untimely broken spoke, but it would only be a few days until the aggressive rider got his chance to redeem his bad luck with a 3rd place finish in Stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie, then the win a day later.
Following a hectic and successful past three and a half weeks, Vinokourov is ready for some quiet time.
"Now, I'll rest a little. This race marked the end of the first part of my season. The year started quietly, then my form arrived at the Basque Country. I ran out of luck in the Classics, but in Romandie, the form was there."
Vino's preparations for his supposed final Tour de France will begging in the middle of May and will follow a traditional format: altitude training camp followed by either the Dauphine or Tour de Suisse. In the case of the Astana captain, it will be the Dauphine - where he has taken numerous stages and the overall as far back as 1999 with Casino-AG2R.
"I'll take one or two weeks of rest, then I'll go to altitude for a training camp and follow that with the Dauphine."
As for the Tour de France? Vinokourov isn't looking to make a quiet lap of France. He recognizes that the overall win might be out of reach, but there's no reason to think that a podium and a stint in yellow isn't possible.
"After that, it will be the Tour de France. I will be the leader of the Astana team there, but I am not aiming to win the overall. The podium would be ideal, but my dream for my last Tour de France is to wear the Yellow Jersey for a few days."