Alex Rasmussen hopes start the 2011 Tour de France for HTC-Highroad
Danish rider Alex Rasmussen has said he is aiming to feature at the 2011 Tour de France after transferring to the HTC-Highroad ahead of next season.
Rasmussen left Saxo Bank in September to join HTC, for whom he hopes to ride not only at the Tour but also at the Spring Classics.
"The Tour would be the highlight of my career but I’m also thinking about the Classics," Rasmussen told website
Cyclingnews. "I'll start out in Het Volk and then go straight into the major Classics. We don’t have an exact leader so we're more outsiders but we’ll all have a chance."
The 26-year-old said that HTC provides a better setting for him than Bjarne Riis' team, whose 2011 season will focus around Alberto Contador if the Spaniard is cleared of the doping charges held against him.
"I assumed I was going to stay at Saxo Bank but then later in the season I put out the feelers and [HTC directeur sportif] Brian Holm found I was still available. We reached a good agreement and I think they can really use me a lot more than at Saxo Bank, where
things will be orientated around Contador, assuming he is there of course."
Aims to support Cavendish
The Dane, whose track riding keeps him busy through the road racing off-season, added that he will relish riding alongside Mark Cavendish, HTC's star sprinter.
"It's better for me to be on team that’s working around someone like Cavendish as I'm more helpful to someone like him."
The Dane, who won the GP Herning and one stage at the Vuelta a Andalucia in 2010, said he also hoped to challenge in prologues and time-trials next season.
"I could fit in the leadout train but can also do things like prologues. I proved a lot last year so in terms of getting a chance of going to the Tour, I think my chances are bigger on HTC. It's about Cavendish, the team time trial and the prologue. It’s
an opportunity but I have to work a lot."
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