Pressemelding:
The Spanish sprinter, three times runner-up in the stages of the Tour de Langkawi, keeps confident about racing high for the team and is already up for the classics
VIDAL CELIS: “I’LL BE HAVING SEVERAL CHANCES AT TURKEY”

Vidal Celis (Santander, 1982) returned on Tuesday, after a two-day trip with three different airplane routes, to his Cantabrian homeland after completing what was his best week as pro rider. Only few months after giving a boost to his career by signing to FOOTON-SERVETTO-FUJI, the third team in an already long race featuring continental squads Orbea (2005-06) and Barbot (2008-09), the rider hailing from Valles has recovered his smile with an unexpected regularity at the Tour de Langkaawi, with three second places and six top-ten runs in the flat stages of the Asian course. The Spanish rider in Gold retakes memories from the recent emotions and looks up for new expectations in the short way to the Benelux spring classics..

- What did Vidal Celis lack to win a stage in Langkawi?
- I lacked finding my room, the needed confidence in the first days of racing, to know which my chances were and who the riders to follow were. In the first stage, I launched my sprint too early, just after taking off the last turn, and Matthews got to overcome me. I get caught into several crashes during the race, and had to save one right into the fifth day’s sprint; when everything seemed to be done, there was always an unexpected happening to spoil it. I remember the last stage: the team worked at its best in the final circuit, they were just as strong as everyday to work up-front, specially with Pedro Merino, Matthias Brändle and Markus Eibegger; I had seen the finish and knew where to take the final rush, but, once I got into it, my pedal went stuck and then I went closed to the barriers with no possibility to overcome. I had spent really much time without enjoying the sprints before this race: it’s pure lottery, you’ve got to know how to place in the bunch, take fast choices, save energy for the right moment and give your best speed during the entire sprint.

- After some difficult seasons in small teams like Camargo, Orbea and Barbot, and without the stability required to perform at your best, is it really like FOOTON-SERVETTO-FUJI seems to be the final step for a long, successful career?
- It’s hard to say, because cycling lives up to the day. The thing that really remains certain for me is that coming here was tremendously exciting. Riding for rather strong squads like Barbot is enjoyable, but coming into FOOTON-SERVETTO-FUJI was the joy of riding for my homeland’s team. Matxin gave me the chance of coming here, and I had to take advantage of it. That said, I have never found a squad that has the good atmosphere of this place. We’re all young riders coming from modest squads: you only have to look at Langkawi’s lineup, with Valls coming from Burgos, Merino and Walker hailing from the amateur stage, Markus and Matthias riding at a Conti squad like Elk Haus... Everyone’s happy, every single rider is willing to ride as much as possible, are proud to ride for a ProTour squad and offer themselves to take responsibility and work when it’s necessary. That’s really hard to be found in any squad. Todo el mundo está contento, tiene ganas de correr, la ilusión de estar en el UCI ProTour. se ofrece voluntario a trabajar cuando es necesario. Eso es muy difícil de encontrar en cuaquier equipo. This sense taken into account, you have to give credit to the DS, a team with such economical and organizational challenges to be on the roadonce again.

- Coming into FOOTON-SERVETTO-FUJI already allowed you to take some racing trips to Argentina and Malaysia. How these experiences are lived by you, and what differs from European cycling in such places?
- Regarding the Tour de San Luis, competition was way different from Europe’s. You had strong squads like Liquigas or Katusha taking part there, and some known Spanish teams like Xacobeo, but the rest of the team were amateurs and national teams. You could feel there was some respect missed down there: some of the non-written ethical agreements usually taken at pro stage were not respected, and the racing was more disorganized. On the other hand, Langkawi seemed like more “pro”: they were riding quite similar to what’s done here, with strong, ordered squads, even though it was a bit strange, too. We were lucky that the race had easy, wide routes, because some things were a bit more complicated: the commands by the hosts, the time gaps given by Radio-Tour, the riding at the peloton… was a bit annoying.

- Which are your short-term goals? Do you see yourself as leaving the downs of Malaysia with some victories in the remainder of the season?
- We’ll wait and see: Matxin confirmed me I’ll be having several chances to be up-front in the Tour of Turkey (April 11th-18th), with some easy stages for me, so we’ll be working as much as possible to come fit and in time. However, now it’s time to work: I’m racing at the E3 Prijs Harelbeke (Match 27th), the Ghent-Wevelgem (March 28th) and the Tour of Flanders (April 4th), with clear expectations to do something team-wise in Ghent. Manuel Cardoso is a gifted rider, able to sprint for the victory and even more capable doing well there with a harder finish. David Vitoria and I seem to be the riders taking him to the sprint and get a good result, because the team will be needing the ProTour points offered in the upcoming races.