Joaquim Rodriguez will lead the Katusha team to the Clásica San Sebastian and the Circuito de Getxo this coming weekend. The Catalan rider, who finished at the top of the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Tour in 2010, will look to kickstart his current WorldTour campaign in Saturday’s race.
Rodriguez finished second in the 2005 edition of the Clásica, and fifth place in last year’s edition. The 31-year-old took his first victory of this season in the Basque country, with the first stage of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, which was followed by a series of frustrating second places.
Rodriguez’ runner up spots this year included the Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallonne, stage eleven of the Giro d’Italia and the first stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné. He finally took his second victory in the penultimate stage of the Dauphiné then took the final stage the next day – which also earned him the points and mountains jerseys.
Rodriguez currently sits in sixth place in the WorldTour standings with 288 points; a little over half the points total of Tour de France winner Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), who currently leads the standings. In his first race since the Dauphiné, the Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia, Rodriguez finished sixth behind Julien Simon (Saur-Sojasun).
In support of Rodriguez in both San Sebastian and Getxo will be Tour de France riders Vladimir Gusev, Vladimir Karpets and Yuriy Trofimov, with the rest of the team having supported the Catalan to his fifth place in the Giro d’Italia.
Katusha team for the Clásica San Sebastian and the Circuito de Getxo:
Vladimir Gusev, Vladimir Karpets, Joan Horrach, Alberto Losada, Daniel Moreno, Joaquim Rodriguez, Yuriy Trofimov, Eduard Vorganov