Spaniard will still have his majority of training done in Spain
After four years with Caisse d’Epargne, Luis León Sánchez decided last month to switch to the Rabobank team. As he is getting ready to prepare his move to the new team, Sánchez reflected on his good season. A season in which he won six races, including the prestigious Clásica San Sebastián. He admitted that racing against his former teammates may be somewhat strange, at least in the beginning.
For now, the positive thoughts are more prevalent, reflecting on his successful 2010. “I had some good results and also a consistency that I didn’t have in other seasons, where I had declines in form for no reason at all.” While victories are always sweet, one stands out for him this season. “The triumph in the Clásica San Sebastián has a special value for me, already because the team was annoyed to not have gotten a stage victory at the Tour de France, after all the hard work.”
In San Sebastián, everything worked out fine and Sánchez was very pleased with his teammates’s hard work. “The victory is even more important considering my rivals were riders like Sastre and Vinokourov.”
In the four years, Sánchez has felt at home with the Spanish squad. “I am really grateful for these years. I have made good friends here in a place which has a really good atmosphere. I also want to thank Caisse d´Epargne for its trust and I hope that the team will have the same luck with Telefonica for the next seasons.”
The Spaniard will have to face his former teammates as rivals on the road. “Surely, at the beginning, it will be a bit bizarre, but I will have to get used to it. Anyway, I feel really motivated because I am moving to another big squad. The fact that in Rabobank there are already experienced Spanish riders such as Freire and Garate will help me to adapt to the new situation.”
One thing is for sure, moving to a Dutch team won’t mean that he will have to travel abroad all the time. “I have still not talked about my calendar for 2011, but the idea is to do something similar to the last seasons. We will do the winter camps in the Mediterranean coast of Spain, so I will not be travelling more than this season,” the said.
While at Caisse d’Epargne, Sánchez also won two stages of the Tour de France and in 2009, he took the overall of Paris-Nice, ahead of Fränk Schleck.