Serene and focused: Alexander Vinokourov

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By Hedwig Kröner

Even though Alexander Vinokourov has his mind focused on his greatest career objective three months from now, the eternal attacker is already in very good shape, finishing an impressive overall third at Tirreno-Adriatico this week. The leader of the Kazakh squad Astana placed just 13 seconds behind his teammate and victor of the race, Andreas Klöden, and thereby showed that the duo will be a major threat to all other Tour de France contenders this year.

"I really surprised myself," Vinokourov told L'Equipe after the race. "I didn't expect to be at this level, especially after a week's treatment of antibiotics for a dental infection. I came to Italy to train..."

Although the 32 year-old will not be starting at Milano-Sanremo ("The finish is almost always for sprinters; the Poggio is not selective enough"), he does plan to be up front again in April. "I can't stay inactive until the Tour - it is not my habit, nor suited to my character," he explained further. "At Liège, I will be there with high goals. It will be my first real test this season; an important step in my progression towards the Tour."

After being forced to skip last year's Tour de France, for the 2007 Tour Vinokourov will prepare himself in great detail, following the same points of reference as in 2006. "In Strasbourg, I was ready to do something big," he said. "Therefore, I will try to continue on the same scheme, without hurrying, taking one step at a time. Liège is part of that plan, but also the Dauphiné, where there will be one or two mountain stages very similar to the ones in the Tour. I know I still have to work on some areas, like the mountains where I have to increase my intensity and the time trial where we will study a better position on the new frames. Soon I'll undergo some wind tunnel testing to improve - I don't want to leave anything to chance."

Vinokourov knows he might not have many opportunities left in front of him to win the Tour, and, even though this could increase pressure for the Astana leader, he stayed as calm and stoic as he has always been. Asked if he felt like one of the favourites, 'Vino' replied, "Yes, and I don't have to fear this role. I could have had more pressure this year, as I'm a leader of a team for the first time, a team that I have created myself, with the help of Kazakh sponsors. All of these factors could stress me, but in fact I've rarely started a season feeling so serene."

This, according to Vinokourov, also applied to the collaboration of his teammate Andreas Klöden. The German, who already made it on the final podium of the Tour de France twice, will be the second Astana leader to count on - but will the ambitions of two contenders not interfere with each other? "It's better to have two leaders for the Tour than just one," Vinokourov replied. "With Andreas, there won't be a problem - his ambitions can only be an asset for me. You will see that in that mountains, we won't be upset wearing the same jersey."

And he is counting on the full support of his team to achieve his goals. "Since our very first training camp in January, everybody understood what we had to do together," Vinokourov added. "That the Tour is the last objective of my career. There is a real partnership among us to achieve this."