"I hope I'll be at the Worlds"

Euskaltel captain Samuel Sánchez was yesterday included in Spain's nine-man selection for next weekend's world championships road race. On one condition though: that his form is adequate. Samu is aiming to recapture some of that form at the Tour of Britain after a crash-marred summer, and told Cyclingnews he thinks he's ready for the challenges the course in Limburg, the Netherlands, will pose.

"As long as I don't crash during this race, things look good for me", the 34-year-old told arguably the world's leading cycling website. "I'm taking it day by day. My arm is fine now. It's healed a lot faster than what was expected when I crashed at the Tour - it was one hell of an impact, very hard. It meant that I had to go back to kilometre zero in terms of competition. But I've been working very hard".

Samu spent days on the mighty Angliru's unforgiving slopes leading up to the British race, hoping to rediscover the form that carried him to the Vuelta al País Vasco overall crown earlier this season. In Britain he's not after results though; it's all about getting the kilometres in.

"My only objective here is to get several days of competition under my belt - it's all about rhythm, rhythm, rhythm. It's quite a long race over 1300 kilometres, almost half as long as a Grand Tour, but the good thing is that I'm not going to get the fatigue that always affects you at a Grand Tour."

Read the whole interview here.