Having the aim of winning Milan-Sanremo in the years ahead and also fighting for stage victories in the Tour de France, 21 year old Australian sprinter Leigh Howard will work with three-time Tour green jersey Robbie McEwen next season in order to learn more about that area of the sport.
Both riders will be on the new GreenEdge team, with Howard being confirmed today as its latest signing. 2011 has been an important year for the rider, who was in the second year of a pro contract with the HTC Highroad team. He won his second consecutive Madison world track championships and took stage five of the Ster Elektrotoer, while last year he won a stage of the Tour of Oman. All indications are that he is set for a successful career.
Howard is hoping that being part of GreenEdge, and working with McEwen, will help speed his development. “GreenEDGE was always my first choice of team but I had a lot of offers on the table,” he said. “With my long term career prospects as the number one priority, I wrote a pros-and-cons list for each of the teams I’d been approached by and GreenEDGE came out on top.”
One of the draw factors was the guidance he will get from McEwen. “I’ve spoken to Robbie a couple of times already about his involvement with the team next year and I think his role is going to benefit me a lot,” said Howard, referring to the rider’s plans to compete for half a year and then switch to the team car.
“Racing for the first half of the season will allow him to get a feel for what needs to be improved from seeing us first hand under race pressure. It’s going to be a big benefit for me.
“And when assessing my long-term goals there will be plenty of opportunities to learn from those who will be forming a core part of the team.”
Grand Tour debut helps build strength
Being one of the youngest riders in the lineup, Howard knew that the Vuelta a España would push him harder than anything he had done before. He readily admits that it was a big battle to reach the finish, but he can also look back to two good top ten finishes as a sign that with more growth, he could realistically chase stage wins in the years ahead.
The first of those high finishes came in the big bunch gallop into Talavera de la Reina on stage seven. The second came in Haro on stage 16, when he finished fifth behind Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank SunGard). However the biggest return from the race is not those top ten results, but rather then effects that the Vuelta will have on his legs.
“I struggled in the mountains, even more so than normal but I pushed on,” he explained after the race finish in Madrid. “I spoke with the older riders on the team and the coaching staff and they all encouraged me to push on and finish because the benefits next year will be enormous in the development of my strength and endurance. Thinking of those long-term benefits helped me make it to Madrid.”
Once he rests and recovers, he should start feeling the benefits of that. His endurance and ability to suffer should both increase as a result of his exertions, and he will see the benefits next year in Classics and stage races alike.
He knows that he must continue to win, and so he is prepared to be patient. If that means riding for another on the team, he’ll do that. “One of the big races I want to win in the future is Milan – San Remo, which Matt Goss won this year,” he explained.
“I’ll try and make the team for that race next year where we’ll be trying to get Gossy up for the win again and that would be a great learning experience for me. It’s a race I really want to win.”
He added that another goal is to be granted a start in the Tour de France in the next couple of years and, once there, to “become the main man for the flatter, faster bunch finishes.”
If so, he’ll follow the example set by his new mentor McEwen, who clocked up twelve stage wins in the Tour plus the same number in the Giro d’Italia. He’s a good person to learn from and if they can build the same sort of working relationship as Howard’s current team-mate Mark Cavendish has with Erik Zabel, then the results should be impressive indeed.