‘It’s nothing personal against Jakob’: Johan Bruyneel
Johan Bruyneel of Team RadioShack-Nissan has commented on Jakob Fuglsang’s exclusion from the Tour de France squad.
The Dane was expected to lead the Luxembourg team at the Giro d’Italia but he had to abandon the race because of his health constraints.
Frank Schleck was given the opportunity and he also failed to help the team with the desired results since his crash towards the final stages of the race.
Fuglsang was positive to be picked up for the Tour de France squad, however, he was left disappointed after the team decided to send him at the Tour of Austria instead.
Moreover, Bruyneel also briefed earlier that Jakob will not ride any World Tour race in the remaining part of the season, mainly because of his decision to choose a different side for the 2013 season.
He has already started negotiating with Team Saxo Bank and all the World Tour points he will earn in 2012 will be carried forward to his new team.
Johan briefed that he has nothing against Jakob and the decision is merely based on the UCI points system.
"I do want to address the fact that Jakob will not ride any more UCI WorldTour races. Let me say this - It's nothing personal against Jakob. It's a decision based on how the UCI has structured the points system".
“No team is going to invest in a rider (have them gain points) and then have that rider take those points to another team”.
"And if we put a rider who is going to go to another team in a World Tour race. The other riders on the current team also miss out on the opportunity to earn points".
The cyclist is enjoying a terrific season and proved his fine form with an overall victory at the Tour of Austria.
He also managed to succeed during the stage 4 of the race, along with the top podium position during the eight-day race.
Steve Morabito of Team BMC finished 1 minute and 24 seconds behind at the second position, with Robert Vrecer and Danilo Di Luca finishing at the second and the third positions respectively.
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