Joe Dombrowski has the potential to be one of the best future Grand Tour contenders. The American rider, who won the Baby Giro, had some great results last year. He won his first professional general classification (Tour of Utah) and he was at the start of his first Grand Tour at the Vuelta a Espana. Currently in Tenerife where he is trying to improve his physical condition in order to be competitive at the Giro d'Italia, Dombrowski told Cyclingnews about his goals for the 2016 season.
"This is my first time here (Tenerife). I'm here until Tuesday, and then I'm back home in Nice for less than a week, and then I do Romandie, and then I'm back to Nice for two days or something, and then I'm off to the Giro. It has been good. For me, it has been doing a lot of volume, and I had a bit of weight to lose so it was about staying on the regime diet wise. Everything has gone pretty well so far", Dombrowski explained.
He added that the Giro d'Italia is his main goal for the year. He would like to do well on Italian roads, but the Tour de Romandie is also an event where he wants to show his jersey. "The Giro for me is the big focus. If you're going to have a good Giro, you're not going to be that far off in Romandie so if you're way off the mark in Romandie then I don't think something magical will happen, and then you'll have a great Giro. I think that I'm going well performance wise. I'd like to do well in both, but the Giro is the big goal."
At the Giro, Rigoberto Uran will have the leadership. The American will be there to help the Colombian in the mountain stages. "We go there with Rigoberto Uran as our GC guy. We'll be looking after him but for me, personally, I'd like to be up there on the mountain stages helping him. If I can be where I need to be and be strong in the mountain days, then that is what I'm looking to do."
"I know that we start in Holland, and I know that we go way south, and then I know the last few stages because my family is coming to watch and it is near where I live in Nice. But, if the first week or so isn't super hard in terms of big mountain finishes then I think that it makes sense not to lose time in a bunch sprint for no reason", he added. "I think I will try to be there and see how it goes because sometimes it might work out that you're sitting high up on the general classification, and sometimes shit happens. You have to try and conserve your energy, but you can't deny yourself an opportunity because you're being so conservative. It's not something that you can state overtly beforehand."
When he heard that Pierre Rolland was coming to Cannondale Pro Cycling, he had some doubts about his ability to fit in. "He'd been at his team forever, and the French teams are always very French. Everyone is speaking French, and they're a bit oldschool. He's fitted in really well, and his English has improved a ton. I remember our training camp in Aspen and he spoke nothing, just hello, goodbye and thank you. Now he's at the level that you can tell a joke, and he understands. He's come a long way. We're not at the cutting edge of cycling but somewhere in the middle but for Pierre, an altitude training camp was something that he hadn't been exposed to before. He's been really surprised by what we see as modern cycling."
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