Philip Deignan says he will get more of a chance to go for his own goals now that Team Sky has no clear general classification contender at the Giro d'Italia following the withdrawal of Richie Porte.
By Brian Canty
Ireland’s Philip Deignan believes he has a chance of winning a stage of the Giro d’Italia which starts in Belfast on Friday week.
The Team Sky rider was named in their nine-man roster for the three-week Tour despite having a difficult season with injury and illness.
But the Letterkenny man says if he can survive the first week or 10 days he will try to get in a successful break.
“Our plan has changed completely because Richie Porte won’t be there,” explained Deignan.
“If Richie had been going it would have been all about me staying with him in the mountains and trying to help him whatever way I could. But now without him, we have more guys that are going to go for GC, like Henao and Kennaugh.
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“I saw Henao in Coppi Bartali and I was really surprised how strong he was and I think he will definitely surprise a few people.
“He’s still very young so I think he’ll be around a good few years yet and the team won’t put too much pressure on him. I think he can definitely be up there for the young riders’ jersey.
“And with Pete I think he’s shown how strong he was in Bartali and in the Tour last year so I think he’ll try to see how far he can go and see if he can be consistent for three weeks.
“Obviously we won’t be outright favourites. But they can maybe do a top 10 and then we have guys like Ben Swift and Edvald Boasson Hagen who can go for stage wins as well.
“And for me, the team have been pretty good. They’ve told me because I’m coming into the race with only five or six days of racing I’m going to be underdone.
“So it’ll be about trying to ride through the first week or 10 days and get up to speed. So I’ll do what I can for the guys but have no pressure. And then in the last week go for breaks and get in a successful move to make it to the finish.
“That will mean me losing time in the first 10 days, sitting up and losing time and going in grupettos. I’ll be trying to save my energy and picking three or four days that I think the break will go and stick.
“That’s the plan for the moment but that could change and we’ll find out before the race. But for the moment that’s what I’ll be doing and that’s what I’m thinking.”
Deignan winning a stage in the Vuelta in 2009, a result he is more than capable of repeating in the Giro and indeed in the Tour de France in the years ahead with Team Sky.
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A broken collar bone in February and a bout of sickness in April upset Deignan’s training and racing but he says he’s in good shape now and really improved over the last number of weeks, which is giving him confidence.
“I think the last four weeks I’ve really come on,” he said.
“I was struggling to get form four weeks ago but the improvement has been great since then so if I can stay out of trouble and stay healthy in the first half of the race, there’s always a chance of a stage win.
“The odds are always stacked against you and you need everything to go perfectly, you need a bit of luck and have a super, super day but for sure it is possible.
“The body feels great actually, I’m fit and healthy and two weeks after breaking the collar bone I was able to get back out on the bike again and after four weeks I was pretty much perfect. I had lost a bit of strength in the arm but after about four weeks I was back to normal again so I’m fine.
“I was bunny-hopping stuff and going easy on rough roads and I had to be a bit careful when I was in a group, to try and stay on the smooth bits of road but that was more a discomfort thing.
“You just have to be careful not to fall on it again, because the bone was still healing so I just had to be cautious when I was training.”
If domestique duties will indeed be his mandate for the race, he said the thought of chasing down Dan Martin or Nicolas Roche had only just dawned on him.
“I haven’t thought about it too much but at the end of the day I’m paid by the team to do a job and if it came to that and I have to chase Dan, then of course I would.
“I’m sure they would do the same if it was the opposite way around and we’re all friends off the bike, we all know what we have to do.”
Looking pretty pissed off after breaking his collar bone in the Tour of Britain last September; a crash that ruled him out of the World Championships a few weeks later. He's broken the other one since then but says he's recovered and sounds bullish ahead of the Giro.
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