Farrar targets Worlds
The Union Cycliste Internationale released today the updated UCI World Ranking classification. With Matt Goss’ victory at the Grand Prix Ouest France-Plouay on Sunday, Team HTC-Columbia has moved into the top-five teams, while Tyler Farrar’s second-place finish moved that rider into the top-10.
Farrar, riding for Team Garmin-Transitions, jumped from 33rd to 18th with a victory at the Vattenfall Cyclassics last weekend, and now stands in eighth after Plouay. The Vattenfall Cyclassics were held on Sunday in Germany and hosted a large selection of riders from the Tour de France. With many of the contenders taking a break after the grueling Grand Tour, the one-day Vattenfall was the first real opportunity to shake-up the UCI World Rankings. It was Frank Schleck’s first race after his injury in the Tour, and Tyler Farrar also had to fend off Andre Greipel and the green-jersey winner Alessandro Petacchi.
“My Tour was a bit of a disaster,” he told Cyclingnews. “So getting things back on track and getting a big win has helped me to feel solid and confident again going into the end of the season.”
Team Garmin is benefitting from Farrar’s good form as well as that of Irish cyclist Dan Martin, and now stands in seventh overall. Astana’s Spanish leader Alberto Contador still dominates, standing in first place individually, while Astana leads the teams and Spain leads the country classification with nearly twice as many points as Italy, the runner-up. Farrar and Goss’ performances in Plouay have moved Australia and the US, the fourth and fifth places, closer to the third-place country, Belgium. The top-10 is controlled by classics specialists and Grand Tour riders, but with Contador sitting out of the Vuelta, his closest competitors, Joaquin Rodriguez, Cadel Evans, and Luis Leon Sanchez could have a bid at dethroning him.
Farrar is not letting his victory celebrations dampen his build-up to the UCI Road World Championships. Farrar plans to take some stage wins in the Vuelta a Espana before his bid for the World Championships. He was considered the best competition for Mark Cavendish for stage wins in the Tour, but suffered from a crash early in the race and was unable to finish.
“The two big remaining goals are the Vuelta and the Worlds and these one days races are final tuning before Spain starts, where I’ll be chasing some stages. Hopefully I can come out of there with good form,” he said.
Farrar has seven wins so far this season, and with a lead-out team of Marri Breschel, Maurilo Fischer, Robbie Hunter and Julian Dean, he is definitely within reach of more.
“I’ve had fantastic support this year and can't complain,” he said. “I’ve had several guys riding for me in races where I can get a result. The team has really stepped up and stood behind me and I’ve had a few nice wins this year. I think we have a really strong leadout train but we still need to iron out some kinks. This is my first year riding with a leadout so I’m still learning too.”
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