Big obstacle may be a conflict of interest with Mark Cavendish in July
Tony Martin celebrated his biggest victory to date when he won the 69th edition of Paris-Nice on Sunday. His sports director Rolf Aldag was quite satisfied with the outcome and called it an important step towards higher goals. One race that Martin wants to shine in is the Tour de France this year. Aldag hopes that the stage race expert can make forget the 2010 showing, where Martin’s preparation went wrong already in the winter.
Aldag is dreaming of the old Telekom days, when the team was fighting for Tour de France wins. “This was an important step towards the Tour,” Aldag told German press agency dpa. “Now his teammates know there isn’t only one with talent, but also one who can win.”
Aldag and the HTC management did what they were unable to do last year – prevent Martin from literally killing himself. He overdid training in the winter of 2009/2010 and was plagued by knee problems early in the season. His desire to get back in shape for the 2010 Tour de France left him overtrained once again and he was too tired during the three-week race to get a good result.
Aldag does think that his time trial specialist has the means to win la Grande Boucle. “He certainly isn’t the top favorite for the Tour, but from place one to ten almost everything is possible.” Given past performances, 2011 should be a better year again for Martin. “There was euphoria in the first year [2009] with the white jersey, and a very mediocre 2010 Tour.”
One problem that Aldag faces is to find a team that can fight for the overall without weakening Mark Cavendish’s sprint train. “Let’s see how how we can get a balance in the nine-man team and how we can distribute the responsibilities. It will be either 5:4 for the sprinter or 5:4 for the overall.”
This means that Cavendish will get more support than what Erik Zabel had in the Telekom days, when Aldag was still racing actively. Zabel had to do with only a couple of riders to deliver him to the line, as the rest of the squad was dedicated to get Jan Ullrich a second Tour de France win, after his initial 1997 success.
Martin’s 2011 started well, winning the Volta ao Algarve in February. The foundation for both Algarve and Paris-Nice was put down in the time trials. But Martin is also a strong climber, which he showed in the 2009 Tour de France. He finished second then in the stage to the Mont Ventoux, beaten by break companion Juan Manuel Garate. But Martin was more than half a minute ahead of Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador, who could be his main rivals at the Tour this summer.