While up-and-coming time trialist Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) took the lead at the Vuelta a España for a day, three-time World Champion time trialist Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) continues proving at the Tour du Poitou-Charentes that he's back on track. Following their early crashes at the Tour de France in July, both pre-Worlds favourites look ready for a duel at the individual time trial World Championship next month in Richmond, Virginia.
Dumoulin was part of the massive pile up during stage 3 on the way to the Mur de Huy, whereas Martin's exit from the Tour was much more noticed as he left the race at the end of stage 6 in Le Havre the day after he took the yellow jersey for the first time in his career through the cobbled stage in Cambrai.
"My collarbone was in a lot of pieces," Martin told Cyclingnews during the Tour du Poitou-Charentes. "The doctors did a really good job. I had no pain after the surgery. One week after my crash, I was already on the rollers and I was always confident that the timing was good for the Worlds."
ADVERTISEMENT
The 30-year-old German put the Vattenfall Cyclassics, the Tour du Poitou-Charentes, the GP Plouay, the GP Fourmies, Québec and Montreal WorldTour races on his agenda to gear up for his attempt to claim the rainbow jersey for the fourth time after 2012, 2013 and 2014. Last year, he was deprived of the title by Bradley Wiggins, who had pretty much put his road career to an end. Dumoulin took the bronze medal.
"Dumoulin is for sure the guy I have to look at," Martin told Cyclingnews. "But like in the past, I'll do my things. I'm confident I'll get to the Worlds with a good condition. I'm looking forward to seeing the course in Richmond. It'll be about power, not about climbing. From what I understand it's a nice one, a little bit hilly but not too hard. The team time trial course seems to be a nice one too. Like every time trial longer than 10 kilometers, the 23km TT that we have here at Tour du Poitou-Charentes is an interesting distance for a pre-Worlds test."
While Dumoulin surrendered his Vuelta jersey to Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) up the climb to Alto de Cazorla on Thursday, Martin finished third in the stage 4 time trial in Poitou-Charentes, claiming the race leader's jersey along the way.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1fKlzA7
No comments:
Post a Comment