Fuglsang hopeful for Tour de France after Luxembourg title

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Jakob Fuglsang still hopes to make the Tour de France squad for Team RadioShack-Nissan but will understand if the decision goes against him. He is still aiming for the 2012 London Olympics and the Vuelta a Espana will be a possibility, but “I would very much like to ride the Tour.”

Fuglsang, 27, won the overall title in the Tour of Luxembourg, for the team's first stage race title this year. He was to have been captain at the Giro d'Italia but had to withdraw from the squad at the last minute with knee problems.

The next race for the Danish rider is the Tour de Suisse, and he hopes to use it to qualify for the Tour de France, although he knows he faces tough internal competition.

"The whole team has been riding incredibly strong, and we have a really strong team,” he told sporten.tv2.dk. “I don't feel 100 percent yet, because there are so many on the team who have the level to ride the Tour.”

As to the composition of the team, “it really depends on what kind of tactics  There are many climbers on the team, but they also need someone for the flat. I do not hope that they believe they can ignore me.”

Still, he knows that is a possibility. “I would probably initially be disappointed, but it's not the end of the world. There are still good races in July and maybe the Tour of Poland is a better preparation for the Olympics and may mean that I have one more chance to get a good result in the Vuelta, so that way we can say that there are pluses and minuses of both. But I would very like to ride the Tour. No doubt about it.”