Catalan to focus fully on Tour de France

Having said earlier this year that he would consider riding the Giro d’Italia, last year’s WorldTour champion Joaquim Rodriguez now looks set to abandon such thoughts, and will focus completely on riding the best Tour de France possible this summer.



His Katusha team has told Wielerrevue that the Catalan has decided to miss the Giro and to concentrate instead on the Tour, where he will be supported by Dani Moreno.



Instead, the Russian rider Denis Menchov will lead the team in the Giro, returning to the race that he won in 2009.



Since then Menchov has finished second in the 2010 Tour de France and seventh and fifth respectively in the following year’s Giro and Vuelta. He had a quiet season last year but is trying to return to his former level.



Rodriguez finished second in the recent Volta a Catalunya and is aiming for victory in at least one of the Ardennes Classics.