Nicki Sørensen appears to have ridden his last Tour de France with the 37-year-old saying that he's been told by Saxo-Tinkoff boss Bjarne Riis that he will not be required for this year's 100th edition of the grand tour.
A veteran of 10 Tour de France, Sorensen has raced in all but two (2006, 2007) since joining Riis when the team was known as CSC in 2001.
"It is not in the cards that I race in this year's Tour de France, and that alone, that I should focus on the Giro," he told Ekstra Bladet.
"It's Bjarne's decision, because I would never say no to riding the Tour de France if I had the chance," he admitted. "But in the past two years, I'd been thinking that the Tour was almost too hard, so I'm really okay with missing out this season. But let's see what time brings."
Sørensen has previously indicated that the Giro d'Italia would be his focus in 2013 saying "where besides helping Rafa [Majka] in the GC, I will try to go for a stage win. I believe that Rafa can make a good result in the overall standings if he continues his progress and takes another step up," he said.
"But I'm looking forward to getting my own chance too. It would be great to take a Giro victory when I have wins in both the Tour and the Vuelta."
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