If Rubén Fernández (Movistar) is already looking ahead to the next season, it’s because he can’t wait to consign 2017 to the past. After a solid first two seasons at WorldTour level, the former Tour de l’Avenir winner was beset by injury this year, halting the progress of one of the brightest talents in Spanish cycling.
“I won’t say that it’s been a year to forget, but there are good years and bad, and this one went awry from the crash I had before the start of the season,” said Fernández in a Q&A with Spanish newspapers, referring to the broken jaw he suffered in training this time last year.
Fernández started his season in February but was unable to replicate the top 10 overall finishes he’d recorded in 2016 at the likes of the Tour Down Under, Tour de Pologne, Vuelta a Burgos, and Tour of Britain. In the end, a foot injury that was apparently linked to problems in his mouth brought a premature end to his only Grand Tour – the Vuelta a España – and with it his season.
ADVERTISEMENT
“In the Vuelta my foot injury complicated things. It was the final straw,” said Fernández.
“In the end it all came from the mouth, from the tension, and it came out in the foot. I had many cavities that wouldn’t be seen on normal check-ups. I had to go to a specialist centre in Vitoria and through them I went home and went about resolving it with my dentist. In the end, since everything is linked, having cavities in the mouth can affect you with injuries in the knee, with tendinitis, or whatever. As of today, it’s resolved. In fact, they removed two wisdom teeth, which was the end of it. At the moment it’s no longer hurting, so that’s a good sign.”
Fernández, now 26, is hoping that, with a solid winter under his belt, he can kick on from where he left off at the end of 2016, when his week-long results, combined with his work at the Vuelta – where he wore the leader’s jersey for a day and supported Nairo Quintana to overall victory – earned him a new three-year deal with Movistar, who labelled him 'one of the biggest sources of excitement for the team.'
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2zXMk31
No comments:
Post a Comment