Talansky’s condition improving at Dauphiné MyZA

English: Andrew Talansky at the 2011 UCI Road World Championship in Copenhagen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Andrew Talansky had a rocky start to the Critérium du Dauphiné due to illness. Fortunately he is slowly finding his feet in the race as he builds up for a likely ride in this year’s Tour de France.

Coming into the race Talansky had been billed as a possible contender for the GC after a strong showing in Paris-Nice earlier this year where he won a stage and placed second overall behind Richie Porte. However, a bout of stomach flu saw him fall down the overall standings in the opening two days, leaving him to reassess his objectives for the race.

“My condition is getting better. I can eat properly now. Coming into this, once I had the stomach flu a few days before the race, I knew it was going to be difficult to be at the level that I wanted,” Talansky told Cyclingnews after Wednesday’s individual time trial.

“The plan was always to use this race as part of the preparation for the Tour. I planned on being in top 10 or top 15, not getting dropped on the first stage. Once I knew that was the case, the whole point of this week was to get better and go hard.”

Having suffered with illness during the open few stages Talansky could have been forgiven for pulling out of the race and perhaps resurfacing at the Tour de Suisse which starts later this week. However, as he explained, the Dauphiné offered up a more appealing course and a number of other merits not possible in Switzerland.

“The course here is good for what I need to get with the long climbs. Hilly time trials are actually easier for me so it was important for me to get in a flat 30 kilometre time trial like the first one in the Tour. You can say maybe giving it four more days it would have been better but that wouldn’t have mattered and I would have had less time to recover after Suisse ahead of the Tour de France.” – Cyclingnews