Philip Deignan is very much back on track this year and the only question is how far can his form and class get him in the months ahead
By Graham Healy
Following on from his great victory in the Tour of the Gila last week, Philip Deignan (United Healthcare) will start the Tour of California today, Sunday, with great confidence.
Despite his team’s directeur sportif Mike Tamayo playing down their chances of an overall win, a high placing on general classification must be still within reach.
The race was won last year by Robert Gesink (Blanco) with Peter Sagan (Liquigas) taking five stages. Sagan lines up again this year, whilst Gesink won’t be defending his crown as he’s currently taking part in the Giro d’Italia.
Amongst those who can be expected to vie for the overall win are Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) and Dave Zabriskie (Garmin-Sharp) who was third last year.
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The race has a difficult start as the first three stages in southern California average three thousand metres of climbing per stage.
The second stage in particular is very difficult with a finishing climb to Palm Springs which averages 9.7 per cent. The middle stages are somewhat flatter, prior to the next decisive stage, a 32-kilometre time-trial in San Jose, which finishes with a climb. Deignan’s time-trialling has clearly improved this season, so he will be hopeful of another good performance on that stage.
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The penultimate stage to Mount Diablo will offer the last opportunity to shake up the GC, as they will finish the stage with an 18-kilometre climb.
Deignan’s climbing last week at Gila was particularly impressive, so he will face these tough stages with great confidence.
This year, the Donegal man has finished in the top-20 in all of the stage races that he has competed in, Tour de San Luis, Volta ao Algarve, and Settimana Internazionale in addition to the Tour of the Gila, so he has been incredibly consistent, and finally seems to have overcome the illnesses which have plagued him in recent years.
Also lining up in the race is Matt Brammeier (Champion System) who has had a break from racing lately. He has been in very aggressive form this season, but the win still eludes him. We can also expect to see the Irish Champion to the fore in the race, as he tries to infiltrate some breaks.
We did an interview with Matt Brammeier in recent days about his prospects in California, you can find it here:
http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/im-in-good-form-lets-see-what-happens/
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