Having been arguably the most aggressive rider of the spring, Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) has returned to racing at the Tour de Suisse, and was on the attack again in today’s fourth stage. The Frenchman was part of a three-man break that escaped in the early kilometres of the stage, and was only caught with 18km to go. A long time away from racing meant that Chavanel felt the attack in his legs a little more than he had in the Classics.
"My return is after two months without competition, so it's not nothing,” he told French sports paper l’Equipe. “Especially in finding the rhythm of the competition with the objective of the Tour de France; not for the general classification but to shine in all areas.
“Two months,” he repeated. “This is not nothing but I hope that in the next few days I'll be riding more smoothly"
Chavanel was almost constantly on the attack throughout the month of April; much of his aggression was on behalf of team captain Tom Boonen though, but he managed to take second place in the Ronde van Vlaanderen. A multitude of crashes in Paris-Roubaix cost him the chance of a good result, but he returned the next week to take 16th in the Amstel Gold Race.
After riding Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Chavanel took a well-earned break from racing, before starting his training for the Tour.
"[I had] a week off my bike,” he explained, “followed by three weeks at altitude; to do the climbs and to find the rhythm in the mountains. It’s a bit tough at the Tour of Switzerland because it’s only been eight days since I got home, so I feel the efforts of course.
“In those three weeks, I did 39,000 metres of climbing!” he exclaimed. “It's a lot, but I hope that these efforts will pay off in the end. For now, it's a phase where the body needs to find the rhythm of competition again. Then you need to have a good rest before the Tour and then we’re off.
“It is in two weeks, it’s coming soon!"
Last year’s Tour de France could hardly have gone better for Chavanel. He won the weather-affected stage across Belgium from Brussels to Spa and took the yellow jersey, although his plight was certainly helped by the neutralisation of the peloton behind him after a number of crashes. He lost the jersey again the next day across the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix, but repeated the feat four days later on the medium mountain stage to Station des Rousses.
Should his 2011 race be anything like as successful, he will surely be very satisfied.