Team Rabobank’s hometown advantage
The 2010 Tour de France kicked off in Rottingdam, the Netherlands, and local team Rabobank was in the first division. The team, in various forms, has participated in the Tour de France every year since 1984, but has never mounted a winning cyclist. The route this year is not ideal for the team but it is promising.
“For us it’s an okay route. There are obviously some special features—the Alps and Pyrenees will be hard but suited to our climbers. There’s also the cobbled stages where we could do something. There’s something for a lot of riders,” director Eric Breukink told Cyclingnews. "The [lineup] choice was very difficult and we knew that when we had Weening and Tankink present as reserves. Bram is just a little more versatile than Peter, slightly more usable in all areas. But they were very close."
The team roster is as follows:
Denis Menchov, 32, has ridden for Rabobank since 2005 and his best performance so far was his victory at the Giro d'Italia 2009. His current overall classification is 13th, while Rabobank is in seventh in the team classification.
"I wasn't in good form at the Dauphine Criterium last month, but my form is starting to come good now," said the Russian. "I know that I'm one of the top GC riders out there—there's not a lot of riders who can win major Tours, so I'm not worried."
An eventual victory at the Tour de France would make Menchov only the sixth cyclist to win all three Grand Tours, and he is the only leading contender aside from Contador to have won both the Giro and the Vuelta. When he raced the Tour in 2006 and 2008, the mountain stages found him falling behind. However, he took home the mountains classification at the Vuelta in 2007, and won a mountain stage at the Giro last year. We will see at the end of stages 9 and 10 if he has overcome his mountain failings.
Robert Gesink, 24, is one of the talents for Rabobank. Since the start of his pro career in 2007 he achieved a stage in the Tour of Belgium in 2007, best young rider in the AMGEN Tour of California in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and best young rider in Paris-Nice 2008. In 2009 he started his season with an injury, he fell in the Tour de France and again in the Vuelta a España. In 2010, he will prepare for the Tour de France by doing the Tour of Switzerland.
“They [Menchov and Gesink] are our best climbers and you want to have them in the race but they need to be fit. We’re talking about training schedules and race programs now,” said Breukink.
Oscar Freire, 34, has been with Rabobank since 2003. He is a three time World Champion in 1999, 2001 and 2004, has won six stages in the Vuelta, though he’s never finished the tour of his own country, won four Tour stages and the green jerseyfor ranking by points in the 2008 Tour de France. In 2004 and 2007 he won Milan-San Remo and in 2009 he earned two stage wins in the Tour of Romandie.
Lars Boom, 24, has an impressive list of results for his 24 years. After having won the Dutch Championship time trial and the World Championship time trial in 2007, he became World Champion cyclo-cross in 2008. In 2009, his first year with Team Rabobank, he became Dutch champion cyclo-cross and showed a good performance in the Tour of Belgium by getting top three places in two stages and by winning the overall classification and in the Tour of Spain where he took the king of the mountain jersey from his teammate Tom Leezer. On January 10, 2010 he again became Dutch champion cyclo-cross.
The team is completed by Grischa Niermann, 34, Koos Moerenhout, 36, Maarten Tjallingii, 32, Bram Tankink, 31, and Juan Manuel Garate, 34.
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