Aldag: ‘Martin can become a GC rider’
Columbia-HTC sport director Ralf Aldag is content with the opening week of the 2009 Tour de France. Two stage victories by Mark Cavendish and runs in the green and white jerseys bode well for the U.S.-registered team heading into the last two weeks of the race.
The team took stock on Monday’s rest day as it prepares to head toward the Alps with all options on the table. While the team’s GC hopes have taken a blow, the team is quietly optimistic Kim Kirchen will find his best form in the decisive final week.
Not only will Cavendish take aim for Paris, more stage wins and the green jersey, the team is also carefully watching the progress of German sensation Tony Martin, who continues to surprise.
VeloNews caught up with Aldag for his take on what lies ahead for the Columbia-HTC squad.
VeloNews: Tony Martin is having a great Tour so far, how much of a surprise is it to you?
Ralf Aldag: Not really, it’s not like we have real expectation. We did everything we could to get him ready for the Tour. He was one of the few guys we said who would for sure do the Tour since the first meeting in December. We asked “what do you want to do?”
Because from the pure power he has, he probably could win Paris-Roubaix, but he just has no interest in that. He wants to become a GC rider. He really wants to ride for GC in stage races. It just makes no sense to send you to Harelbeke or De Panne, so we build you slowly for the Tour.
He didn’t have to confirm his form for the Tour. It’s his first Tour, we don’t really expectations, if he doesn’t finish in the top 10 now, we’re disappointed, or if doesn’t win the white jersey, we’re disappointed. If he cracks tomorrow, it’s fine. It’s his first Tour, then we come back and try to do better. There’s nothing to lose for him. He’s won so much; it’s already a good Tour for him, no matter what happens.
VN: So the white jersey is right there for the taking?
RA: The plan was to come here and try to win the white jersey. That’s the logical step. The plan was not to come here and try to beat Contador. Psychologically, he has to fail, because when Contador goes on Arcalis, he cannot go, but he did take time out of Kreuziger there, so in that sense, it was a success. We’ll see how he goes from here. Hopefully, he’ll ride another 10-12 Tours de France, like Hincapie did, and the young kids will make jokes about him.
VN: Tony’s obviously a strong time trialist, but do you expect to stay with the top climbers in the Alps?
RA: As long as they go steady, it’s not unexpected, but the question will be when the guys in the front really start attacking to see who will this Tour, with attacking, attacking, attacking at the front, with a lot of changes of rhythm, then that’s going to be difficult for him. Right now, it’s still a long way to the finish, it’s very steady and there’s not a lot of acceleration. This is like time trialing, you find your rhythm, you stay with them, but when they really start to jump and attack, then that’s another question, if he can go such at such high speeds for a short amount of time and then recover again. We shall see. We hope he can do it, we just don’t know it.
VN: After all the problems that German cycling has suffered, does Martin represent a new hope for the sport back home?
RA: That’s a bit of a dilemma for him. I really hope he’s not trying to get caught up in the media and staying focused on the race here. I think we’re asking of him a little bit too much to say, you focus on the race, you stay with the best, you have the white jersey and, by the way, you also have to save German cycling.
Honestly, it should not be a priority for him. It comes along, it’s nice, because that’s someone that (German cycling) is really looking for, he should not spend time on that. If he starts to really get into that, starts to have to defend himself, on where does he come from, and it distracts him from the race, at the end of the day, it doesn’t help anyone. Hopefully it works that way, it’s not the most important thing that he has to do at this Tour.
VN: The team has had a bit of rough luck with the GC riders Michael Rogers and Kim Kirchen, has the team given up on thinking about the overall?
RA: With Michael, that was not so nice with his crash, we still don’t give up on Kim. He’s still there. He’s not so far off. He had a hard start. A lot of his performance comes from his head, not from his legs. We see his confidence improving and he’s getting better and better. I think we expect a good Kim Kirchen in the Alps, he’s not going to lose time until them, so we’re not willing to give up on him now. He deserves support. He was eighth and seventh in the Tour, he’s not going to win the Tour, but that doesn’t surprise anybody that he’s not going to win the Tour, but I still believe we have a chance with him for a strong result.
VN: Looking at the race after rolling out of the Pyrenees, who do you think is going to win?
RA: It’s not so hard to say that someone from Astana is going to win. They do have four guys with the ability to win. With the way Klöden is riding and the fact that Levi hasn’t had to anything so far, if someone tries to put pressure on them, they can send any one of them. If they really wanted to attack, it would be interesting to see who. If you ask me now, you have to say physically Contador, psychologically Armstrong.
We are really are a very nice position here in Car No. 4, we have a front-row seat to the big show. It’s really fun to see how they work it out. Lance put big pressure on Contador in the crosswind, say, ‘hey, doing mistakes, you can’t win the Tour like that.’ And then Contador in Andorra, ‘I did do a mistake, but I am always strong enough to correct it and I am back in the game.’ We haven’t had an exciting Tour like for a long, long time.
VN: Is there anything a team like Saxo Bank can do to exploit the fact that Astana has so many leaders and turn it to their favor?
RA: They do have to try. I just don’t see Andy Schleck taking two-and-a-half minutes on Contador and Armstrong, and that’s probably what he’s going to lose in the time trial. That’s the biggest problem there. First of all, they are already behind him, a minute down, so he has to take three-and-a-half minutes, that means they really have to attack early.
With the resources Astana has, if you can attack on the second-to-last climb, if Astana only rides tempo with Leipheimer and Klöden, keep you at one minute, then they leave you there and catch back on the last climb, then attack you and you lose another two minutes. So it’s really risky to do that. I know Bjarne always big, big confidence in his riders and if he’s not trying, he’s definitely not winning. I don’t know if there’s any way to make it happen.
VN: Anyone else?
RA: Menchov and Evans are really out of it. They are desperately trying to find an opening, like what you saw Evans try (at Envalira). That was really a suicide attack. If they had really let him go, if the others would have worked with him, I still don’t think he makes it to the line. I don’t think there was any benefit for him at all, and he would be totally tired the next day. At least he gives it a try. It’s just unlucky in the team time trial that he has no team around him and he lost so much time.
VN: Would a rider like Evans fit at Columbia?
RA: I think many riders would fit on the team and we would be able to support a GC rider on this team. And if we had riders like George, Kim, Michael and Tony as domestiques, I think for sure we could do a very good job to defend the yellow jersey. As far as I know, Cadel does have a contract for next year. The dilemma is that we have Mark Cavendish. He needs support and he deserves support. I think it would be totally unfair that we put eight guys on the GC, and you have the chance to for the green jersey or stage wins on your own.
He’s the fastest sprinter in the world. If you really go for somebody who only looks after the Tour de France, then the team has to look different. Then you have to change the whole structure of the Tour. If we buy a Tour contender, then we have to change everything on the team, I don’t think that would be the right thing to do.
VN: So the team is trying to develop its own homegrown GC talent instead?
RA: Yeah, Martin, there are good riders with good potential, that’s really talking about the long-term future. Right now we work well with the philosophy to be competitive every day, with Cav in the sprints or like George in the break, he just missed it, that’s something we want to be part of the game day by day, instead of just following for 16 days and then attack one time and have the yellow jersey. That’s also nice, but right now it doesn’t fit in our strategy.
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