Finally Brian Vandborg is back racing, and even though he has had a few slaps in his face lately – being left out of the rooster for the Tour of Germany and receiving the news about the closing of his team – he is recovering his positive attitude towards life.
“I’m fine,” he says having just finished the first stage of the French race Tour de l’Ain, which was by the way won by the Swiss Gerolsteiner rider Beat Zberg.
“12-15 riders make it in a break at the 12 km long climb with the top 10-15 km before the finishing line. We had Devolder in the break. I am sitting just behind them in a group of 15-20 riders, but there is no unity at all, so instead we wind up being 40 riders in our group. I believe we are crossing the line 1:50 minutes after the winner,” he tells.
There have not been many races for the Danish rider lately, but that didn’t seem to have much influence on his performance today. “At the beginning my legs were a bit tired after the criteria and the lack of sleep and the travelling, but after that they were surprisingly good,” he says, adding that he feels heavy progress.
According to Brian Vandborg today’s stage was relatively flat during the first 125 km, after that 12 km of climbing, three km false flat and three km downhill followed by two flat km to the finishing line. Tomorrow, they have to deal with 160 km racing in which the first 90 km are relatively flat followed by 70 km hilly terrain. “So, I think there is quite a chance of a bunch sprint, if Gerolsteiner takes responsibility.”
The starting point of the Discovery Channel team is that everybody is entitled to race for them selves, but right now Stijn Devolder is 6th overall. “Everybody has a chance, but it is obvious that Devolder is at a favourable position af the moment. We are finishing at Colombiere on Tuesday, so it is hard to make predictions about who is the favourite.”
At first sight climbs like that are not really appealing to Brian Vandborg, but at the moment he is ready to do a little of everything. “It depends on how things are developing tomorrow. I might give it a chance, because all the stages are rather short, so I don’t think it will mean a lot regarding my recovery, and it would be a fine test and good training regarding the next races,” he says.
Apart from the races he will do for the Discovery Channel team there is also an upcoming World Championship. And of course he would like to be a part of the Danish National Team. It is not yet decided whether Denmark will have three or six riders in Stuttgart. “If the number is six, I should be quite sure, if my progress continues. If it is three, then Matti (Breschel), Lars (Bak) and Nicki (Sørensen) are better than me right now. But in shortly I will be riding just as fast as them.”