Harrison Wooden says he was left feeling “confused” after leaving Cofidis and discovering himself available on the market for a brand new crew.
The 24-year-old British skilled, who was beforehand supported by The Rayner Basis, lately accomplished a transfer to the Portugal-based UCI Continental crew Sabgal-Anicolor after spending three years with Cofidis, a French WorldTour outfit. Throughout that point he rode and accomplished the Giro d’Italia, Tour de Suisse and a number of other of the largest one-day races on the calendar.
“I’ve a lot respect and lots of love for the folks at Cofidis with the crew environment and riders that we had,” Wooden advised Biking Weekly lately. “It was nice for them to place me in a few of these actually large races however then I type of suppose it virtually backfired placing me in them because it meant I couldn’t ever do the marginally smaller races to try to make outcomes and actually present myself.
“It’s good attending to do races just like the Volta a Catalunya and the Giro nevertheless it virtually backfired because it meant I couldn’t do smaller races and possibly realistically go for a prime ten or issues like that.”
“That’s undoubtedly one factor I’ve been struggling to know with Cofidis,” he added. “I ended up doing all these large races so the crew should have had lots of confidence to place me in these from the beginning and been proud of how I used to be going. So I suppose that’s what I don’t perceive as in the event that they’d needed me to do outcomes then I ought to possibly have been doing the marginally smaller races. It left me a bit confused on the finish.”
Wooden continued: “Within the Giro I used to be type of in and round it on a couple of events on a few of the tougher levels proper up till the ultimate climbs. I used to be in a position to be there to assist guys like Simon Geschke within the GC and different issues so I used to be actually proud of that.
“Then within the Tour de Suisse it was comparable, and I used to be solely getting dropped with six or seven kilometres to go so it was clear that I’d made some good progress. So I feel I’m a bit dissatisfied to not likely have one other likelihood as I felt like subsequent yr could possibly be one other large stepping stone and a little bit of a breakthrough doubtlessly.”
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Regardless of his preliminary disappointment at being let go, Wooden defined that he’s decided to make use of his frustration to gasoline his performances going right into a contemporary marketing campaign along with his new crew. One other French WorldTour crew had been briefly involved in his signature earlier than he acquired a trip elsewhere, he additionally mentioned.
His new crew, Sabgal–Anicolor, is at Continental-level however Wooden says that he can already see they may punch nicely above their weight.
He mentioned: “I had the chance from Sabgal–Anicolor and thought truly I may gain advantage from being elsewhere the place the crew would possibly assist me in races quite a bit and I can repay the favour at different factors and I can then get some outcomes with the goal of shifting again to the WorldTour at one other level.
“If I am trustworthy the crew we now have acquired isn’t a Continental crew roster, it is extra like a Professional Continental squad. It’s the tools that helps with that too, we’ve acquired Issue bikes, light-weight Princeton wheels, good package, altitude coaching camps. So the crew is sort of a larger degree setup simply with a Continental licence.”
He might be joined at Sabgal by fellow Brit Mason Hollyman, who has signed from Israel-Premier Tech. Additionally it is not the tip of WorldTour desires, with Julius Johansen becoming a member of UAE Group Emirates from the Portuguese crew this winter.