Gesink targeting a good ride at Lombardia to get a strong start into the winter
After a powerful ride in Saturday’s Clasica San Sebastian and an eventual seventh place finish, Robert Gesink is looking to take a little time off.
The young Dutchman who just finished his first Tour de France in 6th place overall, powered the chase group behind the leading trio of Sanchez, Vinokourov, and Sastre. Unfortunately, Gesink couldn’t get the necessary help from his chase group companions and ended up languishing 20 seconds in arrears for most of the final kilometers back to San Sebastian.
The upcoming break for Gesink will not signify an end to his 2010 campaign, however. Far from it. Up next for Gesink will be: “Three criteriums in the Netherlands, then I’ll go to California for a month for a break. I’ll spend the first two weeks driving around, then the second two weeks training.”
Following his training camp, Gesink tells Dutch news source, NOS, he will resume racing with the two new UCI ProTour races in Canada in September, the GPs Quebec and Montreal.
After that, Gesink has big plans for the latter part of the season heading into the winter.
“I want to go hard through the end of the season and do a good ride at Lombardia. I want to go into the winter strong. I’ll feel better and that will make my winter easier.”
Though the 24 year old climber can take great confidence from a great ride in his first ever Tour de France, he’s already looking at how to move up higher in 2011: “I can go a long time with the great riders in the mountains, but to be really good, I’ll have to become more explosive.”