Watch out for an in form Fuglsang as a powerful Saxo Bank team heads to Italy for one last hurrah
Liquigas rider, Elia Viviani’s win at yesterday’s Memorial Frank Vandenbroucke came as little surprise considering his recent run of great form and his penchant for the difficult Northern Classics. Second place, however, was a bit more of an eyebrow raiser – Jakob Fuglsang.
Fuglsang, normally at his best in the mountains and in time trials, proved a powerful force in Binche-Tournai-Binche. After his excellent 2nd place finish, teammate and sixth place finisher on the day, Jonas Aean, shed some light on the rampant Dane’s riding in a conversation with feltet.dk.
“Already, on the first of the finishing laps, Fuglsang rode with two others up to the break that had been out front all day. It seems that he quietly smashed them, as one after one, they all fell back to the field.”
On the final lap of the day, Fuglsang still had two companions, but as it came time to decide the race, Fuglsang had managed to get clear of his erstwhile breakmates, and survived alone until the final meters when a lightning fast Elia Viviani leapt from the field, across to Fuglsang, and right by to take the win. The Tour of Denmark winner managed to hold on to second place, but only just, as the sprint came right up behind the Saxo Bank rider.
“On the last lap, he was away with two others with a minute lead, but when we hit the last kilometer, it was down to just ten seconds. Here, we first had 500 meters up on the cobbles, then 300 meters on asphalt, before the final 200 meters on cobbles. Already at the bottom of the final climb, a Liquigas rider [Viviani] got away from the field. He was able to catch Fuglsang at the very end to take victory. I was number three in the group behind to take sixth place.”
Up next for Aean will be Paris-Bourges. The young Dane will take to the start tomorrow with World Championship second place finisher, Matti Breschel. Aean could have a solid chance at riding his own race though considering the time zone misery the riders just returning from Australia will be enduring.
“Now, we will race Paris-Bourges on Thursday and then Paris-Tours on Sunday. It’ll be really exciting. Now, the World Championship riders will be home and will participate in the races, but at least on Thursday, they will probably have a little jet lag, and then we will really see if I have the legs. I will certainly try.”
Fuglsang, meanwhile, will be headed to terrain more suited to his talents – the difficult Giro dell’Emilia, followed the next day by the GP Beghelli, ultimately culminating with the Giro di Lombardia.
A 2nd place at the Memorial Frank Vandenbroucke along with a 3rd place overall at the sprinter friendly Circuit Franco-Belge indicate a Fuglsang on excellent form and one that should factor highly over the next two weekends in Italy, culminating with the Race of the Falling Leaves – the Giro di Lombardia. The new course should suit Andy Schleck’s right hand man in the mountains perfectly. Saxo Bank will field an impressive team on October 16th, though the start list isn’t final, it’s likely that next Saturday’s line up will mimic the line up of this Saturday’s Giro dell’Emilia, which consists of: Frank and Andy Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Gustav Larsson, Chris Sorensen, Laurent Didier, Anders Lund, and Jakob Fuglsang. Lombardia will likely be the last race together in Saxo Bank colors for most of that day’s team, before the greater portion head off to Team Luxembourg for 2011.