Fabio Aru (Astana) has tended to spend long spells at altitude in the build-up to Grand Tours but, having placed fifth overall at the Tour de France last month, the Sardinian preferred to prepare for the upcoming Vuelta a España by training near his home in Lugano.
Aru won the overall title on his last appearance at the Vuelta in 2015, but that triumph came at the end of a steady build-up following his second place finish at that year's Giro d'Italia. This time around, Aru has faced a rather quicker four-week turnaround.
"I needed tranquillity," Aru told La Gazzetta dello Sport of his decision to eschew an altitude camp. "It's the first time in my career that I'll take on a programme that includes the Tour and the Vuelta. As a result, I'm also following a completely different build-up. After the Tour, you don't need to do a very big quantity of work, even if you still need to do a distance ride two or three times a week. Today, for example, I did a five-hour ride…"
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Having begun the 2017 season targeting the Giro d'Italia, which began from Sardinia, Aru was forced to revise his plans when he sustained a knee injury in a training crash in early April. He recalibrated sufficiently to win the Italian national title in Ivrea, and then won a stage of the Tour and enjoy two days in yellow, though his coach Maurizio Mazzoleni pointed out that his preparation for the Giro had already been quite advanced.
"Fabio didn't ride the Giro because of injury but he had prepared to ride it. And for him, riding it means being competitive," Mazzoleni said.
Two years ago, Aru raced the Tour de Pologne as he prepared for the Vuelta, but this time around his lone racing appointment will be a criterium in Kazakhstan at the weekend, which will also feature Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar). The first week after the Tour was spent off the bike, before he resumed training ahead of the Vuelta.
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