Etixx-QuickStep Sport and Development Manager Rolf Aldag believes that one of his team’s strengths for the upcoming Milan-San Remo is that the Belgian squad has various options for a race which is often unpredictable in the extreme.
Aldag himself knows Milan-San Remo well as a rider, taking part in it over ten times in support of Erik Zabel, the four times winner. Given La Primavera is a race where in the critical last third the scenarios are altering constantly, as a director and rider in turn Aldag believes that means you have to be continuously thinking about the changes that demands.
“It’s not like Fleche Wallonne, say, where if you’ve got the best uphill sprinter and if you deliver him to the foot of the Mur and he’s in a good position, that’s basically it, he will win that race. Milan-San Remo is just not that simple.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Although Tom Boonen’s absence through injury will obviously be a setback for Etixx-Quick Step - amongst other reasons, the Belgian finished third behind Oscar Freire and Allan Davis on the Via Roma finish back in 2007 - Zdenek Stybar, Mark Cavendish and Michal Kwiatkowski will all figure in different ways in the Belgian squad’s end-of-race plans for Sunday.
Although Kwiatkowski has yet to finish Milan-San Remo in two participations, “Kwia’ is always important because he’s one of the best bike riders in the world, so it’s always good to have him.”
“He wants to see how far he can get and what he can he do, because in bad weather in the past he’s suffered badly on the Turchino already, so it’s going to be a new experience for him. If he gets there like he should do, then purely from the shape he has” - with a second place in Paris-Nice his most recent success - “then he can do everything. He can go with the best on the climbs, he can go with the best on the downhills, he can lead out and he can sprint. That’s why also he’s World Champion.”
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1FO8jVh
No comments:
Post a Comment