Today, Purito Rodriguez is coming back to competitions with the first day of “Vuelta a Burgos”, where he’s going to wear the number 1 thanks to his victory in the last edition. Before that, a little period of “active rest” right after “Giro d’Italia”, where he fought for win until May 27th.
“I look forward to come back to competitions after these two months – said Joaquim -  the feelings during the trainings were good, so I expect to be in a good shape in the next races”.
The work during trainings was hard: “We trained a lot, so I think I’m in a good shape for this competition. Maybe not like the last season, when we took part to Ordizia and Getxo before Burgos, and although it was not so much, it’s always something more than nothing. Moreover, I’m confident and still because I’ve already taken some results during this season. Maybe I missed some competition, but I think my shape will be alright”.
In Burgos, he will be leader together with Dani Moreno: “Dani is in a good shape, so he will try to fight for general classification too. There are some stage with good finishing part for us: it’s going to be a good things also for getting ready for ‘Vuelta a Espana’, in order to increase our confidence and race rythm”.
After an extraordinary first part of the season, with a victory in “Tirreno-Adriatico”, 2 stages and second place in general classification in “Vuelta al Pais Vasco”, victory of “Fleche-Wallonne”, 2 stage wins and second position in “Giro d’Italia” after having kept the pink jersey for ten days, Purito could be satisfied and face the second part of the season with more confidence.
“The truth is the first part of the season was great. We were leader of UCI World Tour individual ranking almost all the time. Now, Wiggins is in first position: he gained many points, and I don’t know if we will be able to pass him. Usually, riders use to win this ranking with around 600 points: he’s already 601, while I’m second with 404. That’s why it will be very hard to pass him: for sure I’ll try, we trained a lot in order to make a good performance in ‘Vuelta a Espana’, World Championships until ‘Giro di Lombardia’, or maybe until the competitions in China at the end of the season”.