Samu heading for altitude

Samuel Sánchez will head to the thin air of Sierra Nevada to hone his form for the Tour de France.

So says www.elcomercio.es Tuesday morning. The website reports the Euskaltel captain will take in a ten-day stint of altitude training in the Spanish mountain range, starting tomorrow and ending on the 23rd of June. As a consequence, he'll forego (as he usually does) the Spanish time trial champs, which are being held on June 22nd this year, and in all likelihood also the road race being held a pair of days later. It was reported yesterday that the reigning Olympic champ suffers from an oedema in one of his ribs on the right side of his body as well as having strained his left latissimus dorsi muscle because of his crash on stage one of the Dauphiné, but it's now confirmed it won't stop him lining up in Liège on June the 30th.

"If I'd abandoned the Dauphiné, I would be a step behind in my preparations and could almost have said goodbye to the Tour", he stated. "But I managed to press on and now have at least eight days of top-level competition in my legs.

"As for predictions for July, Wiggins is very strong and his team, Sky, look to be top motivated. Evans also looked to be going really well - and don't discard Andy Schleck".