Fabio Aru (Astana) will look to the Tour de France with increased optimism after a pugnacious display at the Critérium du Dauphiné brought him fifth place overall and valuable reassurance regarding the state of his form.
After placing a disappointed 13th overall on his Tour debut a year ago, Aru’s 2017 season was planned around a tilt at the Giro d’Italia, but his schedule was hastily revised in April when a training crash forced him to forgo the corsa rosa.
Aru was diagnosed with prepatellar bursitis after the crash, which took place during a training camp at Sierra Nevada, and the Tour replaced the Giro on his schedule. The Dauphiné was Aru’s first race since he abandoned Tirreno-Adriatico through illness in March.
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“I came in with some doubts,” Aru told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “I didn’t know where I was at because I didn’t have any point of comparison. And I went away with some certainty, having found the answers I was looking for.”
Throughout his career, Aru has tended to race sparingly ahead of his major objectives in the Grand Tours, and he seemed to be unfazed by an absence of almost three months from competitive action. He was helped, no doubt, by the fact that the Dauphiné’s toughest stages arrived in the final three days.
Aru was aggressive on the Mont du Chat on stage 6, eventually placing fourth in the four-man sprint as his teammate Jakob Fuglsang took the honours. On the final day, Aru attacked on the Col de la Colombière in the company of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), a move which ultimately helped lay the groundwork for Fuglsang’s second stage win and final overall victory. Aru took fifth on the final stage and finished in the same place on general classification.
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