No. Turns out he’s not bothering. Although the Monument was one of his stated targets for the season, he’s going to ride the four-day Giro del Trentino instead as he looks to build fitness ahead of next month’s Giro d’Italia.
The Giro del Trentino offers pretty good preparation for the Giro as it takes place on similar roads and features some tough climbing (so tough that one-dimensional midget/hero, Domenico Pozzovivo, managed to win last year). Even so, it’s hard to avoid the feeling that preparation isn’t going exactly as planned for Wiggo. Liege-Bastogne-Liege is a much bigger race.
The single day race would have been a good opportunity to gauge how he’s doing in terms of developing a more exciting climbing style as well. He won the Tour with long, steady efforts but the Giro makes different demands and he’s been training accordingly.
“We’re working more on the explosivity in the climbs. I don’t like it. It’s the worst part of training.”
A newly explosive Wiggo forged in a maelstrom of pain and fury inside a volcano? Nearly. Training seems to have involved grinding up the side of Mount Teide in Tenerife before launching into a much harder effort when he nears the top. He’s also been doing squats in the gym.
We saw some early results of this approach in the Volta a Catalunya last month when he actually attacked the other riders. He didn’t win, but that was then. The Giro del Trentino should give us another update on how he’s progressing.
In make-what-you-want-of-this related news, Chris Froome is in the Sky squad for Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
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