Ukrainian rider aiming to help Fabian Cancellara and take a strong personal result
Eleven years after he won the Espoir version, Yaroslav Popovych plans to line out in the 2012 Paris-Roubaix in top form and with the goal of aiding Fabian Cancellara take what would be his third victory there.
The Ukrainian rider has become known as a competitor and helper in the Grand Tours, winning a stage of the Tour de France in 2006 and also helping others to strong results. He’s now hoping to do the latter for Cancellara, and changed his normal pre-season preparation in order to be in the necessary shape.
“I started training in November, normally having done it in December before, in order to do a good job in the first part of the year,” he said, according to Biciciclismo.
“In 2012 I will focus on racing the cobblestone Classics with Cancellara, including Flanders and Roubaix. I want to do well in Roubaix because I have always liked these races and I felt comfortable, regardless of the falls and punctures. I think I can get a good result and help Cancellara.”
Once those races are over, he will back off a little, then build up again to peak for the Tour de France. Providing he is selected for the team there, he will be riding for Andy and Frank Schleck, second and third overall in this year’s Tour, and possibly also his current RadioShack team-mate Andreas Klöden.
Both are moving across from their current setup, joining general manager Johan Bruyneel, Chris Horner, Ben King,Tiago Machado, Nelson Oliveira, Ben Hermans, Markel Irizar Aranburu, Gregory Rast, Jesse Sergent, Haimar Zubeldia and George Bennett in going to the Leopard Trek squad.
Backers RadioShack and Nissan will also move and become the title sponsors of the team.
The squad is still waiting to learn if it will be given a ProTeam licence. On November 2nd the UCI announced that eight teams were given the nod in the first round, with Vacansoleil and Leopard Trek/RadioShack Nissan initially missing out. The Dutch squad has since been given the green light, but Popovych’s setup is still to find out what the UCI’s decision will be.