Jakob Fuglsang has intimated that although he doesn’t have clear direction about next year’s racing calendar from the RadioShack-Nissan-Trek team, he’d like to target the Giro d’Italia which will start in his home country.
The Dane is still unsure about whether his services will be needed to help the Schleck brothers at the Tour de France but just like at the Vuelta a España, he’d like to head to a Grand Tour as team leader.
"If I ride, I want to be the captain, otherwise I spend my energy elsewhere [as a domestique]. My big goal for next year is the Giro, but it also somewhat depends on what the plans are with Frank and Andy now that the Tour seem to be very time-trial friendly, which surely is not to their advantage. So it may be that they look around to target the Giro or the Vuelta. We will see but my goal is certainly to ride the Giro as a captain," he told Feltet.dk
Despite the increase in time trial kilometres next year, the Schleck’s have confirmed the Tour de France will still be their number one priority. Should Fuglsang be given the green light by new team manager Johan Bruyneel to target the Italian race over the Tour, the course could well suit him.
"It's a good mix. It's not a crazy tough Giro. It is tough no doubt about it, and there are some tough mountain stages, but there are also some flat sprint stages. It looks as though it is a good mix."
As Fuglsang is good in the race against the clock, there's the chance he could lead the race in the first week, like he did in the Vuelta in August. In contrast to previous years, the Giro will start with a prologue in Herning, Denmark, with the team time trial moved to stage four.
"It's obviously a possibility [to take the pink jersey], I will do everything I can to do it. It was special that we started with a victory in the team time trial in the Vuelta. A prologue in Herning is for specialists. Not many days later there's a team time trial in Verona. If we start with a good team [for the team time trial], and I ride a good prologue, anything is possible."
Fuglsang had his best performance in a Grand Tour this year when he eventually finished the Vuelta in eleventh place. He has previously won three editions of the Tour of Denmark. While he hasn’t quite transformed his ability in shorter stage races across to three week events, he hopes that 2012 will see him achieve that goal.