Third overall in last year’s Tour de Suisse, Jakob Fuglsang will begin his first season with Team Leopard-Trek as one of the protected riders. He may have ridden for the Schleck brothers last season while at Team Saxo Bank, but this year will bring more chances to show what he can do.
The team’s desire to position him as one of the challengers for the Tour de France means that his programme will change. The triple Tour of Denmark winner could have had the chance to aim for victory in the Giro d’Italia, but it has instead been decided that he should save his full strength for the Tour.
“The time when Jakob was a helping rider is over,” said directeur sportif Kim Andersen, according to Politiken.dk. “This year he will be a card we can play with Andy and Frank, which is why I have chosen to take him out of the team for the Giro d’Italia, where he would have been our trump card.
“The Giro is so hard this year that it would be impossible to target a top spot there and to also be able to do really well in the Tour. It is of course possible that this strategy does not succeed on the first try, but there is no doubt that I regard Jakob as a rider with a very exciting potential.”
Fuglsang conceded that it might seem unusual to aspire to finish high up in the general classification one year after placing 50th overall in the race, but he was riding for Andy Schleck then and used his energy to set the Luxembourg rider up. He and Chris Anker Sorensen were seen on many occasions towing the bunch along, sacrificing their own chances in order to help out the rider who would go on to net second overall.
That was effort well spent, and even more so that Schleck could end up being confirmed as the final overall winner of the race. Crowned victor Alberto Contador tested positive for Clenbuterol and is deemed likely to lose his title.
For Fuglsang, going into the race as one of the team leaders should lead to a big improvement. Riding hard early on and then sitting up to save energy for the following day didn’t help his GC performances last year. This time round, the 25 year old hopes he will land a significantly better result.
“In my mind I dream that already this year I can get a top ten place in the Tour,” he said, thinking ahead. “In any case, I will get the chance to ride for GC significantly earlier than I had anticipated.”