Janez Brajkovic of the RadioShack team is a trusted domestique of his team captains, but is now headed towards his biggest success as a professional bike racer. Only two more days separate him from taking out the Critérium du Dauphiné. But there is still one big obstacle in the way of a potential triumph: Alpe d'Huez.
The riders will have to tackle 21 switchbacks to ride up the 13.8km climb, which ends in an altitude of 1850m above sea level. It will be the fourth mountain of the day, after the Côte des Fontaines (catégorie 3), the Col du Grand Cucheron (catégorie 2) and the Col du Glandon (like Alpe d'Huez an hors-catégorie climb).
Brajkovic expects a tough battle but hopes he can hang on to the lead. "I expect Alberto [Contador] to try and attack," he told French sports paper l'Equipe. "I won't be obsessed with trying to follow him, but I hope to keep the jersey." The Slovenian has an advantage of 1'41 over Contador.
The Spaniard is not the closest to Brajkovic in the general classification standings. American Tejay van Garderen lies in second place, 1'15 behind the RadioShack rider in yellow. But it clearly is the Spaniard that Brajkovic is paying close attention to. "He is the one who I am worried about the most."
Just one day after beating Contador in Wednesday's time trial, the Spaniard struck back with several attacks on Thursday's stage. But Brajkovic was able to counter them, holding on to his lead. In Friday's stage, there was a little bit of a breather for Brajkovic.
He was able to profit from RadioShack's work. "There were a lot of attacks in the first climb. We were able to control it and let riders go away who weren't dangerous." The break of the day managed to stay away, with Daniel Navarro taking the win by a margin of over three minutes to the peloton. "Sergio [Paulinho] pulled the train. The day was quite easy for me, but not for my team" Brajkovic said.
Brajkovic is lacking the wins in his career, but has mostly made his name as a valuable team helper. He was picked up by the Discovery Channel team in 2005, Lance Armstrong's final year in his 'second' career path. Brajkovic joined Astana in 2008 and thus was again a teammate of Armstrong in 2009. In neither years he rode the Tour de France, however. With his current showing, this is something that could change for 2010 and it would be in fact his Tour de France debut.
As for his own palmarès, Brajkovic has won the Tour de Georgia in 2007 and was second in the Giro di Lombardia in 2008. He is the reigning Slovenian time trial champion and was also second in the Giro del Trentino last year.
In Saturday's queen stage from Crolles to Alpe d'Huez over 151km Brajkovic hopes to lay the foundation of his sweetest win yet.