Colombia’s Winner Anacona is one of Movistar’s most coveted climbers but as he approaches 30 he feels the time has come to balance his valued work as a domestique de luxe with his own, occasional, shot at glory.
Cyclingnews (CN): Less than a month ago, when they unveiled the Tour de France route and you saw that L'Alpe d’Huez, where you played a key role for Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde in 2015 and finished eighth yourself, would feature again, how did you feel?
Winner Anacona (WA): Everybody reminds me about that performance, even now, and it went better than I could expect, I have to say. So seeing Alpe d’Huez back on the Tour program is great, above all because knowing I did well there before will surely boost my confidence, and because it’s going to be a really crucial day in the Tour. So, yes, I like that climb and hopefully it’ll go even better than in 2015.
ADVERTISEMENT
CN: What about 2017? You went very well in the Giro d’Italia supporting Quintana, but then you didn’t appear in the Movistar line-up for the Vuelta, which was originally your 2017 program.
WA: The 2017 Giro was a very important race for me and I got into form exactly when I hoped to. I was expecting to do the Vuelta, but after Alejandro [Valverde] crashed out in the Tour, everything changed. He was going to be our leader in the Vuelta but Eusebio decided that every cloud had a silver lining and instead of a normal support team for a GC bid, he’d put a lot of young riders into the Movistar team there, like Richard Carapaz, Marc Soler, Antonio Pedrero. That way they’d have an opportunity to learn the ropes of a Grand Tour without the pressure. So there was no Vuelta spot for me, and I’ll have to try to race it next year.
CN: And what are the objectives for next year?
A call for more support
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://ift.tt/2zPkpSr
No comments:
Post a Comment