The Ardennes Classics, the Tour de France and the Olympics will be the three main goals of the next season for Joaquim Rodriguez who goes into his seventh consecutive season at Team Katusha.
The Catalan rider has revealed his schedule to BiciCiclismo: Dubai Tour, Volta ao Algarve, Tirreno-Adriatico, Volta a Catalunya, Tour of the Basque Country, Amstel Gold Race, Fleche-Wallonne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Criterium du Dauphiné, Tour de France, Clasica San Sebastian and his usual end-of-season guarantee for success, the Vuelta a Espana.
Rodriguez who turns 37 in May, will start in Dubai as he has doen in the last two years, and the novelty on his schedule is is Algarve which he has not done since 2010. He will then focus on WorldTour stage races at Tirreno, Catalunya which he won in 2010 and 2014, and the Tour of the Basque Country. He won the latter in 2015 and will again use the race to reach peak condition for the Ardennes where he hopes to win his second Fleche Wallonne following his 2012 victory and take a first victory in Liege where he was secon din 2009 and 2013 an third this year.
In the Tour, he will try to return to the podium which he already reached in 2013, on a mountainous course that suits him well. The Rio Olympics will be his third big goal. In fact, he plans to travel to Brazil after Liege where he will take a look at the course while in peak condition. And, in principle, the Vuelta is again on his agenda, a race in which he won nine stages and was second in 2015, third in 2012 and fourth in 2010, 2013 and 2014.
After his difficult 2014, he found his best level this year, taking the final victory and two stage victories in the Tour of the Basque Country, two stages at the Tour de France and one stage at the Vuelta a Espana where he finished second behind Fabio Aru. Furthermore, he was third in Liege, fourth in Fleche Wallonne and fifth in the Clasica San Sebastian.
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