Andre Greipel wraps up his ‘best ever’ season
Andre Greipel of Team Omega Pharma-Lotto opened his 2012 winning account by winning the first race of the season, the 2012 Cancer Council Helpline Classic and bagged three stages at the UCI Inaugural event, the Santos Tour Down Under 2012.
The German was not part of the 2013 Tour de France presentation held last month, but he is much familiar with the route and has already started training for the season ahead.
While commenting at the Tour de France 2013 route, Greipel suspects that the race has as many as seven suspected sprint stages in the season ahead which gives him a great opportunity to bag multiple stages at the most prestigious cycling race of the year.
"There is speculation about a bunch sprint in the first stage, so the winner could win the yellow jersey,” said Greipel.
“But considering the difficulty of the Criterium International, which also takes place in Corsica; it is not clear that they will finish with a sprint. But if so, of course we will be present".
The 30-year-old was superb during the 2012 edition of the French race as he occupied the second overall spot after the final point’s classifications, defeating the former green jersey winner, Mark Cavendish with a margin of 60 points.
Peter Sagan of Team Liquigas-Cannondale occupied the top spot with 421 points, while Andre Greipel (280 points), Matthew Harley Goss (268 points), Mark Cavendish (220 points) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (160 points) claimed the next four positions respectively.
"I'm very satisfied because my victories are well distributed throughout the year," he explained.
"As a team, we were present at all times and we take our responsibility for each race. Now we need to set new goals. Since last week I've started to build towards 2013".
Greipel’s other commendable performances in the 2012 season include first place finishes at the Pro Race Berlin and the GP Impanis-Van Petegem and second overall positions at the World Ports Classic and the Vattenfall Cyclassics 2012.
He bagged multiple stages at the Tour of Belgium, Santos Tour Down Under, Tour de France, Tour de Luxembourg, Tour of Oman and the Danmark Rundt 2012.
Andre’s 2013 training programme will start with the individual mountain bike and the cyclo-cross events and he will then train along with the team for the season ahead.
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