Despite a strong showing in the Tour de Suisse, Bauke Mollema has made it clear that he will be riding the Tour de France in support of Robert Gesink. The Dutchman finished the Swiss race in fifth place and might well have placed higher had an untimely puncture not cost him time in the dying moments of stage eight.
Sitting second overall heading into that stage, Mollema’s misfortune coincided with a move by Leopard Trek to the front of the bunch to increase the pace; it appeared they did so when they heard of his puncture, and this prompted an angry response afterwards.
Speaking to VeloNation while recovering for the Tour, the Rabobank climber opted not to dwell on the issue, saying "Switzerland is finished, the Tour is a different race.”
Rabobank are sending a team filled with climbers to support Dutch hope Gesink. The list includes Luis Léon Sanchez, Juan Manuel Garate and Laurens ten Dam. Mollema will hope to add value to the strong line up.
“Robert Gesink is the leader of the team and I will try to help him as much as possible,” he said. “I hope to be important to him during the hard mountain stages, since that's my specialty. At this moment I have no ambitions for the general classification myself.”
Mollema has had a strong season, finishing all the stage races he took part in inside the top ten. These results include ninth in Paris-Nice, tenth in Volta a Catalunya and second in the Vuelta Castilla y Leon after leading the race for some days. The 24 year old says that part of this success is due to moving countries.
“I’ve been renting an apartment in Alicante in Spain since December. I have spent a big part of the winter and spring there. In Alicante I can train very well in the mountains. Besides, I think I am stronger now because I did my first Grand Tour last year.”
The young talent was sent to the Giro d’Italia in 2010 as his team’s protected leader. His best result was on the stage to Asolo where he finished seventh. He impressed overall too, ending the race in twelfth place as the third best young rider.
“To race three weeks was unknown for me when I started last year’s Giro d'Italia,” he said, thinking back to his experience of that debut. “Now I know what it is to race three weeks,” he said.
“I think I handled that pretty well since my result was good. I take that experience with me while going to this year’s Tour de France.”
He is making his debut in the Tour, and will learn a lot from the race. This year it’s about supporting Robert Gesink, but the 2007 Tour de l’Avenir winner will undoubtedly hope to target the general classification himself in two or three years.
Rabobank’s line up for the Tour de France: Robert Gesink, Bauke Mollema, Laurens ten Dam, Lars Boom, Maarten Tjallingii, Luis Léon Sanchez, Juanma Garate, Carlos Barredo and Grischa Niermann.