One would excuse Rigoberto Uran if he was a little tired after finishing second place in the Tour de France, having won a close stage in Chambéry and fought his way ahead of Romain Bardet in the final time trial. But the Cannondale-Drapac rider insists he's not at the Colorado Classic for a holiday. He cruised in for 19th place in the sprint in Colorado Springs on Thursday behind stage winner John Murphy (Holowesko-Citadel), and is ready to tackle the short, brutal Breckenridge stage.
"I finished the Tour well, I wasn't tired from the Tour. I wanted to come to Colorado, to do well here. Also, it's my first time here. I like to experience different things, that's why we are here," Uran said before the opening stage.
Part of the reason Uran is still fresh despite having finished so well in a Grand Tour is that he came into the race with little pressure, an aim at a stage win and maybe a top five overall. There's something to be said for under-promising and over-performing.
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"Before the Tour we were seeing that my condition was improving more and more, and honestly, I am a racer who has made the podium in the Giro d'Italia. I was calm. I knew that I liked the route of the Tour de France, and we decided to take it a day at a time in order to do our best, one stage at a time."
Looking back, Uran was left out of many of the pre-race predictions for the Tour de France podium, despite having finished second in the Giro d'Italia twice. Being overlooked by the pundits wasn't an insult, Uran insists.
"It is normal because I had two years without results in the last two Giros, and arriving at the Tour, it's normal that the press would not talk about you because we hadn't been in the limelight for two years," he said. "The team and I arrived calm because we knew we had trained well and wanted to do a good Tour. For us, the most important was to win a stage, and to be in the top 5, and we achieved all of that."
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