Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step) on the podium. (Image credit: AFP)
Wouter Weylandt is angry about his non-selection for the Vuelta a España, August 29 to September 20. Team Quick Step selected Australia's Allan Davis as a back-up sprinter to Tom Boonen instead of Belgium's Weylandt.
Weylandt, 25, won stage 17 to Valladolid in last year's Vuelta. He is especially frustrated at missing the race since he has missed other big races earlier this season. "First I was promised Paris-Nice and then the Giro," he told Het Nieuwsblad. "But I could not ride them because it was too soon after the Classics."
"I put everything on the Vuelta, but it's nothing again. Instead it is the Eneco Tour and the Tour of 'Miserie' [Missouri]."
Team manager Patrick Lefevere discussed the selection with Weylandt earlier this week and indicated that the young rider hadn't met the team's expectations this season. "Lefevere has always believed in me, but since this year, it seems the faith is gone. I don't know why."
Quick Step selected Davis to make up for his last-minute removal from the Tour de France squad. A French court ruled that Boonen could start despite an out-of-competition doping control for cocaine.
Weylandt lacked understanding in the decision to take Davis to the Vuelta. Lefevere said in January, according to Weylandt, that Weylandt was a stronger rider than Davis.
Davis won the three stages and the overall of the Tour Down Under this season. He finished fourth in Milano-Sanremo and fourth in the recent Vattenfall Cyclassics. He had seven top-ten stage finishes in the Giro d'Italia.
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Weylandt won Le Samyn and a stage in the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, both in March.
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