Irish fans can expect to see Philip Deignan riding on the front of the peloton at the Vuelta if all goes to plan for Team Sky over the next three weeks.
By Gerard Cromwell
Donegal’s Philip Deignan will tackle his second Grand Tour of the season from Saturday when the three-week Vuelta a Espana gets underway with a 12.6km team time trial in Jerez.
This will be Deignan’s fourth start at the Vuelta, with the 2009 edition remaining one of the highlights of his career thus far.
Back then, almost two decades after the retirement of Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche, the Letterkenny man set the benchmark for the new generation of Irish riders when he won a mountainous stage 18 ahead of Romain Kreuziger and finished ninth overall while riding for the Cervelo Test Team.
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Ridng for Team Sky this year however, Deignan admits he harbours no ambitions of a repeat performance this time around.
With Chris Froome as outright team leader, Deignan - like the rest of his Sky squad - will have a supporting role over the next three weeks, with the focus on getting Froome onto the top step of the podium by the finish in Madrid in three week's time.
“It’ll be new for me to have Chris to ride for but it’s why I originally came here,” said Deignan from his team hotel in Jerez today.
“I came to Sky to fill that role as a worker in the mountains, so I’m really looking forward to it.
“It’s going to be a challenge. If we do take the jersey or are defending the lead, it’s going to be tough but it I’m really looking forward to it and if I can help Chris win the Vuelta it would give me great satisfaction.”
A solid climber, Deignan hopes to be able to support Chris froome in the high mountains towards the end of this Vuelta.
Although he hasn’t raced with Froome since joining Sky in January, Deignan trained with him recently and feels the 2013 Tour de France winner will be there or thereabouts by the end of the three weeks.
“He seems to be going pretty well. I went training with him last week and he looks in good shape," he said.
"And seems to be very motivated to finish off the season on a positive note after all the bad luck he’s had this year so I think he’s pretty keen to pull off a ride here."
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Deignan himself comes into the race in good form, having followed up third on a mountain stage of the Giro d'Italia with second on a stage of the Tour de Suisse and then seventh overall at his most recent outing, the Tour of Poland.
A solid race there against the clock on the final stage propelled him up the overall standings.
“I think I surprised a lot of people with the time trial on the Tour of Poland but I can time trial when I have to.
“It’s just been a case that, in almost all of the stage races I’ve done this year, the time trial has been used as a recovery day because the focus has been on going for stage wins rather than the GC.
“I feel pretty good, physically and mentally, but it’s always difficult to tell how you’re going.
“You’re always a little bit unsure coming into a race. I can only go off the previous race and how I’ve been feeling in training but judging by that I should be okay."
Without a Grand Tour victory or indeed even a stage win so far this year, Team Sky will be hoping Froome can go one step better than his second place on the Vuelta in 2012.
“By the team’s standards, it probably has been a disappointing year so far but it’s just been down to bad luck really," says Deignan.
"You just have to accept that these things happen in bike racing. A good result here will go a long way to wiping all that out.”
A really quality ride in the Tour of Poland time trial underlined Deignan's form at this late stage of the season.
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