2010 Vuelta a España race leader and the season’s world number one Joaquim Rodriguez has said that he is confident heading into this year’s race, believing that he is stronger than twelve months ago and has better energy reserves.
The Catalan rider has structured his season differently, taking bigger breaks between racing and opting to ride the Giro d’Italia rather than the Tour de France. That change has ensured that he has had a longer period to prepare specifically for the Spanish tour, and he feels it could make a difference in the three weeks ahead.
“With two days left before this important competition starts, I can say I feel much better than a year ago, when I reached fourth position,” he said at today’s press conference. “I was the protagonist of a brilliant season, but maybe I was a little tired, since I started races very early.”
Rodriguez has been more selective this year, and while he has clocked up less world ranking points, a big performance in the Vuelta would make up for that. Thus far the Katusha rider has taken the overall classification in the Vuelta a Burgos, won the opening stage of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and taken two stages in the Critérium du Dauphiné. He was also second in both the Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallonne, as well as fifth overall in the Giro.
His feeling is that he has struck the right balance. “This year I feel much more rested and I have much more energies,” he said, although he remains cautious about presuming too much. “This doesn’t mean it will be an easy race for me at all. My rivals are many and strong, and all of them are supported by competitive and powerful team. But I have confidence in my chances and, most of all, in the team’s motivations.”
For much of last year’s Vuelta, Rodriguez looked like the likely winner. He won stage 14 to Peña Cabarga, led the race for a day after stage ten and stage 16, and went into the final time trial with a 33 second lead over closest rival Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale). Yet in the race against the clock the tables turned on the small, punchy rider, who is one metre 70 tall and weighs less than 60 kilos (5’7” and 132 pounds).
Rodriguez placed only 105th, losing six minutes and twelve seconds, and dropped to fifth overall. That 46 kilometre test at Peñafiel spelt an end to his tilt at the title; he’s worked at his weakness since then, but admits he’s still worried about the 47 kilometre stage ten TT in Salamanca on August 29th. “At least theoretically, it doesn’t suit me at all,” he concedes. “In fact, my weak point has always been the race against the clock: also in the last edition I proved to be the strongest in climbing, but I suffered too much in the ITT and my final placing, unavoidably, has been affected.”
Still, he has an advantage this time round. Aside from the work he’s done to improve, that time trial also comes much earlier in the race. It therefore gives him more opportunity to try to make up any ground he loses, and he will exploit the subsequent mountain stages to fight for the overall. He expects Nibali, Igor Anton (Euskaltel Euskadi), Denis Menchov (Geox-TMC), Bradley Wiggins (Sky Procycling) and Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD) to be his main rivals, and will seize every opportunity he gets to build time on each of those.