Joaquim Rodriguez pursues what he parsonally calls intact targets in this year’s edition of the Tour de France, which more particularly are winning the mountains classification in which he currently leads and a stage victory.

 

“I had such goals since I crashed out of the Giro, the mountain classification, but people overlooked it because I didn’t feature at the front of the peloton during the opening stages. It has to be remembered that the Tour is three weeks long,” Rodriguez told Spanish media, according to Esciclismo.com.

 

However, the 35-year old Katusha leader emphasized his intentions as soon as the peloton hit the mountains, featuring in the day’s breakaway to claim the mountains jersey and only narrowly missing out on the stage victory at the Planche des Belles Filles on Monday.

 

“I said that when the real mountains appear I would be there, and I’m here. I have the mountain jersey and I still look for a stage victory.”

 

Rodriguez is aware that with double points tally available to claim on mountaintop finishes in alps and Pyrenees defending his lead in KOM competition won’t be an easy task, but apart from the main general classification contenders he also expects his closest rivals Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) to make things difficult.

 

“Keeping the mountain jersey won’t be easy, I believe it’s going to be an additional incentive during this Tour. Even though Alberto is gone, there’s no need to turn the TV off and send journalists home! There’s a lot of cycling yet to be seen,” Katusha leader joked.

 

“In the Alps I expect myself to do better. There still will be Voeckler and Martin, who are my closest rivals. I need to gain a lot of points because the mountaintop finishes are hors categorie and offer a lot of points. Seeing Nibali, it’s obviously enough for him to win two more of such stages to go away with mountain jersey in the end.”

 

Rodriguez won the KOM classification at the Vuelta a Espana in 2005, but by winning the competition at the Tour the France he would join the last two Spanish winners of that classification, Egoits Martinez and Samuel Sanchez.

 

The 34-year old Spaniard regretted a loss of Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) after the pre-race favorite crashed twice during the tenth stage, and pointed out to his other countryman Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Richie Porte (Team Sky) as riders capable to challenge extremely strong Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) as the action unfolds in the second and third week of competition.

 

“It’s a big shame for the spectacle, because he rode really well. Contador and Froome had been very offensive and were obvious favorites, but both experienced a lot of bad luck.”

 

“Let’s see how Valverde is going to do, and Porte has to be considered as well as he’s able to regain a lot of time on the 54-kilometer long time trial,” Rodriguez concluded.