Tyler Farrar targeting the classics for the 2012 season
Tyler Farrar is amongst the long line-up of the sprinters that are warming up for the Tour of Oman. However, Team Garmin-Barracuda’s rider briefed that his main focus for the 2012 season is the classics.
The American started his 2012 season at the Tour of Qatar and claimed the second podium spot after the final general classifications.
He finished 28 seconds behind the race leader, Tom Boonen, who secured his first overall victory of the season.
Farrar earned 27 UCI points and grabbed the third spot at the final point’s classifications after Tom Boonen and Mark Cavendish.
The five day race in Oman kicks off on February 14th and the cyclists will pass through six gruelling stages, the race winner will be announced on Sunday, 19th of February.
On commenting about his plans for the coming races, he told Cyclingnews, “I’ve done very little sprint training, so I didn’t expect to be flying there. Now after Qatar, hopefully it’ll be a little bit better”.
“But living where I live in winter, it’s not realistic to really be doing a lot of sprint training. I’ve been focused on my power and on being ready for the classics,” he continued.
Farrar continued that he is looking ahead at the Paris-Roubaix and will fully concentrate on the sprint trainings only after he is done with the French classics
The main reason behind the American’s lack of interest towards riding the Asian race is because of the rising temperature in the Asian continent.
The cyclist also briefed that Flanders is one of his favourite races on the racing calendar and the new course makes it even more interesting.
Besides the Flanders, Farrar is targeting the Gent-Wevelgem for the season ahead, as he mentioned, “I think my personal target will be Gent-Wevelgem. Of the bigger classics, that’s the one that suits me and my characteristics best”.
The 27-year-old joined the American team back in 2008 and secured a number of victories during his stay with the side.
His major career highlights include two Tour, two Giro and three Vuelta a Espana stage victories.
Farrar also claimed the overall victories at the Circuit Franco-Belge 2009 and the Delta Tour Zeeland in 2009 and 2010.
Only time will tell if the American cyclist can take the overall win at the Tour of Oman to bag his first overall victory of the season.
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