Heading into their sixth Classics campaign, Team Sky are still in search of the holy grail that is winning one of cycling’s most coveted Monuments.
The team have had a difficult relationship with the Classics, flirting with success on occasion but never securing one of the biggest prizes. Unable to replicate their skillset in Grand Tours, where metronomic suffocation and clinical execution have seen them win two Tours de France, they have struggled to match the tempo and authority of other squads such as QuickStep and Trek in the one-day format.
And nor have they devised the kind of winning strategy that has seen others – Johan Vansummeren (Garmin), Alexander Kristoff, (Katusha) Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) and Nick Nuyens (Saxo Bank) – carry away success. After five years on the racing circuit, plenty of success and just as many plaudits, the Classics remain an itch that Sky have yet to scratch.
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Rod Ellingworth, the team’s head of performance operations, who has been credited with Great Britain’s successful ‘Project Rainbow’ at the 2011 Worlds, has seen Team Sky make marginal improvements in recent times in the Classics, and understandably has faith in the core of the team that will take centre stage, starting with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad this weekend.
“The preparation has gone well. Last year we had a lot of sickness and illness in the build-up but this time around we’ve had a strong winter. We’ve not really changed that much in terms of preparation from last year but we’re confident with what works,” Ellingworth tells Cyclingnews.
Ellingworth has certainly seen the nucleus of Classics campaigners on the team change and adapt over the years. In the team’s debut of 2010 the squad was built around Juan Antonio Flecha, Gerrans, Matt Hayman and Edvald Boasson Hagen. All four have moved on – or, in Flecha’s case, retired – with the deputies from that time now assuming roles within the team of far more significance. For Ellingworth, though, it’s not just about experience or captaincy, but hunger and drive – something he sees in abundance when he looks through the team’s current crop of riders.
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