Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project rider could aim for Vuelta instead
Triple Tour of Denmark winner Jakob Fuglsang has committed himself to riding for the Schleck brothers in next year’s Tour de France, but his allegiance stretches further than the month of July. The future Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project competitor had previously said that he hoped to lead the team in some other races, with the Giro an interest, but he now realises that the Italian race might be a goal too far.
“The problem [with doing the Giro before] may be that I can not ride the Tour at 100% because it will be too hard to go through a Giro first and then race the Tour afterward,” he told Sporten.tv2.dk.
Several big name riders tried to perform strongly in both events this year, including race victor Ivan Basso, stage victor Cadel Evans and the Briton Bradley Wiggins, but each then found themselves below-par in the Tour de France. Evans’ Tour chances were partly affected by a broken elbow in the Tour, but he didn’t credit the injury with being the only factor.
The fact that he plans not to do the Giro next season in order to be 100 percent for the Tour indicates that he too also felt fatigued by the Italian event.
Because of this, Fuglsang knows that he probably needs to pass up the chance of riding in the first Grand Tour of the season. Instead, he could potentially hope for a stage win at the Tour. “I’ll see if I don’t somehow get something out of it, even while I help Frank and Andy.”
There remains another Grand Tour afterwards, and many of those who want to be at full strength in the Tour use the subsequent Tour of Spain to as a second opportunity, rather than going to the Giro. That means they can arrive at the Tour start fresh, ride hard, then see how things are afterwards. Doing the Giro is a risk.
Fugulsang would like to aim for the general classification in a Grand Tour next year and so if it is not the Giro, it could be in Spain. He realises it is too soon to know, though.
“The Vuelta could also be a possibility but we must wait until after the Tour to see how knackered I am and then take it from there,” he stated. “It’s a bit up to the team, it’s ultimately about what they want. I’m open to possibilities, at least.”
The 25 year old finished third overall in the Tour de Suisse this year, won the Danish time trial championship and rode his first Tour. He did that in the services of Andy Schleck, putting his personal ambitions to one side, but then went on to take his third Tour of Denmark. High placings in other events followed afterwards, including a fine fourth in the season-ending Tour of Lombardy.
Fuglsang has been tipped as a possible future winner of the Tour de France. 2011, though, is all about helping the Schlecks.