Sylvain Chavanel vows to improve on satisfactory 2010 season
After a successful 2010 season, Quick Step's Sylvain Chavanel said he ranked his 2009 season as his best to date.
This year, Chavanel won stage two and stage seven at the Tour de France, holding the yellow jersey for the five stages in between.
But the Frenchman, who won his country's time trial championships, another Tour stage as well as collecting victories in the Dwars door Vlaanderen and Brabantse Pijl Classics races the year before, said he still rated his 2009 season the highest.
"The 2009 season was my best one," Chavanel said at a meeting organised by French daily La Nouvelle Republique. "In my eyes, this year was less good in terms of results even if I had a great Tour de France."
Chavanel went on to explain that he took great pleasure in settling into the Quick Step roster in the early stages of 2009 after joining the team at the end of 2008.
"I found my bearings straight away. It's a team built around the northern races, the classics, be they in Flanders or in France. In all of those races, I finished in the top 10. That impressed the team, especially the directeurs, and that helped my integration.
When you have the results, it's much easier to integrate. A lot of cycling is psychological."
2011 Tour one for the spectators
Next season, Chavanel will be eager to make an even greater impact at the Tour, whose hilly route he believes is well-suited to a rider with his endurance and fighting spirit.
"It's going to be a very difficult Tour for us riders, but great for television viewers, because it will be spectacular. The first part in Brittany is quite hilly and there could also be echelons formed. Afterwards, there's the [climbs up the] Massif Central,
the Pyrenees and the Alps to finish up. From the Alps on, it will be very, very difficult. Personally, that suits me because there should be stages for
baroudeurs."
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