By Antonio J. Salmerón Spanish climber Moisés Dueñas will start a training camp with his new team,...
Moisés Dueñas showed promise with his 2007 Regio Tour overall win (Image credit: Bjorn Haake)
By Antonio J. Salmerón
Spanish climber Moisés Dueñas will start a training camp with his new team, Barloworld, today in Marina di Bibbona (Toscana), Italy. The 26 year-old is looking forward to racing with his third-ever professional team, following Relax and Agritubel.
"Whenever you change teams you are a little nervous, but at the same time very with a big desire to prove yourself. Personally, I am very happy because I have seen Barloworld is a great formation," he noted.
Dueñas views the Great Britain registered team's non-ProTour status as a blessing. "As it is cycling, I fully understand this decision," he continued of the team not upgrading to the ProTour level. "Being a ProTour team adds nothing, it only brings problems ... [Entries into the] Tour de France or Giro d'Italia are something that we can achieve by our strength. Personally, I think the ProTour will eventually disappear because it makes no sense."
The Giro and Tour will be the centre of Colombian Mauricio Soler's programme, who Dueñas hopes to assist. "The team wants me to be the rider who is with Soler in the mountain stages of the Tour, since I will not dispute the Giro," he continued of the rider who won the mountains classification of the 2007 Tour. "It will be an accomplishment to stay with him, and a sign that I can do a good Tour.
"I dream of doing something big in the Tour de France, although I do not know whether it will be a good classification or a stage," stated the rider from Salamanca, who won the 2006 Tour de l'Avenir and 2007 Regio Tour.
He will start his season in Italy before returning to home roads. "I debut February 9 in Italy [GP Etruschi - ed.], and my first competition in Spain will be the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, at the end of March." He indicated that Subida al Naranco, Vuelta Ciclista Asturias and Euskal Bizikleta are also on his programme, but not his country's major tour, the Vuelta a España. "We have no plan a third major tour," Dueñas concluded.
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However, in the second half of the season, Dueñas will be motivated by the team's new arrival. His brother, Hector, is expected to join Barloworld in August.
