Katusha captain hopes that improved time trialling will see him better his 2010 fourth place
Following his victory in last week’s Vuelta a Burgos, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) is going into the Vuelta a España with the confidence that he can go better than his fourth place of last year. The Catalan actually held the leader’s jersey for a day in 2010, as the race passed through his home region but, despite winning the stage to Peña Cabarga, he was to finish 4’22” behind eventual winner Vincenzo Nibali.
This time he hopes that things will be different.
“I’m not hiding the fact that I’m good and that I’m going to race to win,” said Rodriguez from his pre-race training camp in Amdorra. “It will be twenty days of stress. Many things can happen but I know that I’ve worked the best I could to deliver a better result than last year’s fourth place overall.”
“Before and after the Tour of Burgos, I’ve trained here in Andorra”, “Purito” explained. “I didn’t go and reconnoitre many stages of the Vuelta because I know most of them already. I went to see the finale of El Escorial [stage 8 – ed] and that will be harder than high mountains!
“It’s necessary to arrive in good shape at the start because the first hills come quickly,” he continued. “With the Sierra Nevada on stage 4 and there won’t be many hills during the last week. There will be Peña Cabarga and a few attacks by desperate riders, but whoever will have the red jersey at the top of the Anglirù [on stage 15 – ed] will have a good chance of winning in Madrid. It’ll be hard to recover time after that stage.”
The place where Rodriguez lost most of his time last year was against the clock. In a disastrous performance in last year’s 46km time trial – which he started as race leader – he lost 6’12” to stage winner Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia), knocking him down to fifth overall. He managed to claw back one of those places, but it was Velits who took the final podium place in Madrid.
“My performances against the clock have improved at the Giro and the Dauphiné but it doesn’t mean that I’m becoming a specialist of time trials”, he said. “I’ve worked on riding better than I did in Peñafiel last year. I hope to avoid another disaster like that happening.”
Rodriguez took his first victory of the season in the first stage of the Vuelta a Pais Vasco in April. After a string of frustrating second places though, he finally took his second win at the Critérium du Dauphiné in June. He sat out the Tour de France, having ridden the Giro d’Italia, and has barely been off the podium since his return to racing.
“I want to reach Madrid with my mind free of regrets and worries”, he said. “The most important thing will be to have a good race and to improve the fourth place I got last year. I’ve looked at the news about the other riders apparently coming to the Vuelta with good form: [Denis] Menchov, [2010 winner Vincenzo] Nibali, [Michele] Scarponi, [Igor] Antón, [Janez] Brajkovic, [Bradley] Wiggins, etc. Logically, it’s better for me to not have to compete against Alberto Contador who is very difficult to beat but he’s been seen at the Tour de France as someone who is not unbeatable, so it gives more morale to other riders to target the win at a Grand Tour.
“I go to the Vuelta with the advantage of having a great team around me,” he concluded. “I was not the only one from Katusha going well at the Tour of Burgos, Dani Moreno [who was 2nd overall – ed], Joan Horrach, Alberto Losada, etc. were doing well and I heard that the guys doing the Tour of Poland were also on good form. Everything makes me optimistic.”
Rodriguez’ final overall victory in the International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour in 2010 was in no small part due to his performance at the Vuelta. With Philippe Gilbert poised to take the lead in the standings, and with Rodriguez currently in fifth place – 140 points behind him – he will need a strong Vuelta performance again if he is to repeat his title.