Juan Antonio Flecha eyeing the podium at the Paris-Roubaix 2012
Juan Antonio Flecha is targeting the Paris-Roubaix as the next big race of his 2012 season.
He is enjoying a splendid run of form in the current season and stepped on the podium during the Tour of Qatar and the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
The cyclist finished third on both the occasions and is now eyeing the French race to continue his winning quest of the current season.
The 110th edition of the Paris-Roubaix is scheduled on April 8th and the Spaniard is favourite to secure the victory on the Sunday event.
Flecha has also revealed that he has a minor surgery on his hand, which he is hopeful will recover soon.
“I broke a metacarpal in my hand while out training last week, the fracture was smooth and I was even able to ride home after I’d done it,” as reported by Team Sky.
“I went into surgery on Thursday and they re-aligned the bone before fixing it with a couple of screws,” he continued.
He is positive to gain his strengths by the end of March and will start training for the Paris-Roubaix.
Flecha is hopeful to recover in time to ride the Criterium International scheduled on March 24-25 to fine-tune for the Paris-Roubaix 2012.
He voiced, "If everything goes well I should be able to make my return at Waregem [March 21], but obviously that’s dependent on what the doctor says. I want to return there but it’s obviously dependent on my recovery".
Antonio is also eyeing the Tour of Flanders scheduled on April 1st before moving towards the more serious goal of his 2012 season.
The 34-year joined Team Sky in 2010 and is determined to continue his third successive season with the British team.
Team Sky has done exceptionally well during the 2012 season and is currently leading the UCI World Tour rankings as of March 11, 2012. It has claimed a total number of 207 points to achieve the honour.
Team Movistar is 15 points behind at the second position, while Team RadioShack-Nissan is further 43 points behind at the third position.
World Tour debutant side, GreedEdge Cycling Team earned the fourth spot after its impressive performances, while Team Vacansoleil-DCM is at the fifth position.
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