Fabio Aru will lead the Astana team at the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, in search of his first victory of the season and first since he won the 2015 Vuelta a Espana.
The 25 year-old Sardinian has set the Tour de France as his major goal of the year but is also hoping to do well on his debut in the Ardennes Classics. He will also ride Fleche Wallonne next Wednesday and then to team up with fellow Italian Vincenzo Nibali for Liege-Bastogne-Liege, after the Sicilian has ridden the Giro del Trentino.
“The Amstel Gold Race wasn’t on my original race programme but I wanted to add it to get into the feel of the Ardennes,” Aru told Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview before travelling to the Netherlands.
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“My form is pretty good but its difficult to make any kind of comparison because I’ve never tried to peak in April. My big goal is to be 100% for the Tour de France in July. For now I’m a bit below that.”
Aru was forced to quit the recent Vuelta a Pais Vasco during stage five after hurting his finger in a crash when Adam Yates and Simon Gerrans went down after hitting a bidon. He endured a difficult race, with up and down form.
“I had some good days but also some bad days, when I made mistakes. I wanted to test my form but I did too much. Fortunately Pais Vasco gave me a good block of hard racing. I was just disappointed not to finish because I’d never quit a stage race in my whole career, even as an amateur. It happened because of a crash but it still angers me.”
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