Published December 28, 2010 11:14AM
Joaquím ‘Purito’ Rodríguez says he hopes to win either the Giro d’Italia or Vuelta a España someday following his breakthrough 2010 season after his move to Katusha. The Spanish rider was fourth overall at the Vuelta this year, a result that fuels his ambitions for the coming seasons. “Now my dream is this: to win a grand tour or at least be on the podium. The Vuelta and the Giro are within reach of my possibilities.”
Thomas Voeckler, the French rider on Bouygues Telecom, believes that cycling is getting cleaner. In an interview with Eurosport, the French rider of the year says that the increased number of doping controls are having an impact: “Fifteen years ago, there were no positives at the Tour, but that doesn’t mean that people were not doping. You have to accept that better controls mean that riders will get caught.”
The Associated Press reports that the 2011 Vuelta a España will start with a team time trial following the official confirmation from Benidorm officials.
Rabobank transfer Nick Nuyens says one of Bjarne Riis’ famous off-season team building exercises revealed a well balanced squad. “It also became very quickly apparent that no one sought to be ‘star,’ “ he says in a post on the team web site. The 30 year-old Belgian classics specialist said the team’s discipline at meetings impressed him. “There’s no chitchat for joint meetings, which is a relatively rare phenomenon when it comes to professional cyclists,” he said.
Pavel Tonkov, winner of the 1996 Giro d’Italia, has traded the pink jersey for the business suit of a hotel owner.
The Russian has settled into a new life as the owner and operator of the Hospedería del Atalia in Córdoba, hometown of his wife. Tonkov, now 41, opened the 20-room boutique hotel in May.
Tonkov, who became one of the most successful riders to come out of the post-Soviet Russia, told the Spanish daily El Mundo that he cannot stand to sit still. He also offers guided cycling trips in the mountains north of Córdoba.
Tonkov, known as The Czar during his heyday, retired at the end of the 2005 season. He won seven stages and one overall at the Giro, two stages at the Vuelta a España and the overall at the Tour de Suisse in 1995.