Rabobank team returns empty-handed from Algarve

On Sunday, the Rabobank ProTeam completed the Volta Algarve without any victories. Luis Leon Sanchez was tenth in the concluding time-trial and that was just not quite enough to also get into the top ten of the final classification. As a result, this week there remained some places of honour for Matti Breschel (photo) and the elegant knowledge the Dane will be in good form, with a view to the opcoming classics. Team leader Adri van Houwelingen also found this to be one of the most important conclusions in Portugal. “It’s a pity we didn’t win anything, because this is why you do it and a victory would also be very useful, but we needn’t panic. We have seen the team improve across the board.” Bradley Wiggins won the time trial and his team mate Richie Porte the final classification.

The team started with the ambition for stage victories mainly. With Matti Breschel on board, the Rabobank selection had a serious contender in the Portuguese tour, but unfortunately things didn’t work out that way. The Dane sprinted to third and fourth place this week, wore the points jersey briefly and took part in a very promising breakaway run on the second-last day. While the form was excellent, this unfortunately did not lead to the victory so fervidly desired.

Hopeful
Team leader Adri van Houwelingen is nevertheless hopeful over next weekend, when the Western Europe season of classic races will open with the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, respectively. “Matti has made a good impression here,” the team leader feels. “Normally the stars in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad come from the Algarve race. This was also the case last year with Sebastian Langeveld. He is certainly a different type of rider to Matti, but Sebastian was also good in the Algarve and subsequently won the Omloop. I’m not saying that this will automatically be the case with Breschel, but he is in with the other contenders.”

On Saturday, the Dane made another attempt in a breakaway group of ten riders. This was not completely according to plan. In Portugal Breschel was the only Rabobank pawn for a bunch sprint, but nevertheless he attacked. “Other riders of the team had already exhausted themselves in other attempts and when nine other riders attacked, Matti was the only one who could keep going. It is praiseworthy that he does what was asked of the team in the preparatory talk, stick with them.” explained Van Houwelingen. Staying away was really not an option. Breschel tried once more to go solo in the final part, but was immediately countered by Björn Leukemans.

No good classification
Earlier this week it became clear that there was little chance for Luis Leon Sanchez in the classification in the Tour of the Algarve. During Friday’s Queen’s stage, the Spaniard was unable to keep up on the final climb when the battle broke out in earnest among the classification riders.  He lost more than a minute to the leaders and almost half a minute to time-trial monster Tony Martin. Because of this, with the individual time-trials on Sunday, the chances of a final victory disappeared immediately and those of a high classification placement were significantly reduced. Van Houwelingen: “It’s a pity it didn’t work out, but happily it’s still early in the season.”