When 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Mark Cavendish signed for 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Astana Qazaqstan, much was made of the last-minute contracting of Dutch sprinter Cees Bol to work as a lead-out man for the Briton in the Kazakh team. However Astana Qazaqstan also have a second option for that role, as became clear in the recent 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour of Oman where Estonia’s 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Martin Laas worked as a lead-out man for Cavendish.

Bol will be the man minding Cavendish in the bu💯nch sprints at the UAE Tour next week and as such will likely remain the plan A for Astana Qazaqstan’s incipie♍nt sprint train. But Laas hopes to be back with Cavendish down the line at some unspecified races later this year.

Formerly with Bora-Hansgrohe, Laas said that when he signed with Astana, he had no id🍰ea Cavendish would later end up joining. But he had no objection to ♋his job description changing dramatically in the last couple of months.

“When I signed, all the rumours said that Mark would normally be going with B&B. But I’m proud to be in the team to l🧔ead out Mark and make as much of✃ it as I can, even if leading out and sprinting are completely different games,” Laas pointed out.

Laas isn’t going to be locked into one specific dut🃏y in🔯 Astana just because of Cavendish’s arrival.

“I have different roles in some races. Maybe I will get an opportuni🗹ty in some races, in others more as a lead-out for Gleb Syritsa or Cavendish,” he explained.

“Basically, I’d like to help the team as much as possible in the lead-outs and support in this way but also get opportunities in the race too, because for su🐟🥀re I want to win as well.”

Laas gained much of his experience in riding as a lead💞-out man in Bora-Hansgrohe, where he racked up the big♎gest of his 14 wins to date, a stage of the Arctic Tour of Norway in 2021. 

He knows that leading out a sprint and sprinting for victory 🐈are very✱ different. 

“If you are a sp😼rinter you just need to save energy, save, save and save - and then just launch in the last 200 metr🐟es,” he explained.

“If you’re a lead-out൲ man, then you always need to think about your sprinter and always need to think a few steps ahead. Plus if I pass through the peloton I need to make room for Mark behind as well.”

“It’s not totally different, but you a🌠lways have to remember that what’s important for you is not actually what’s best for you: it’s what’s best for the sprinter.”

Each sprint🎃er has their own attitude to the final metres of a race, Laas points out, and the more a lead-out man and a sprinter race together, the more fluid aܫnd effective the relationship is likely to be.

“You need to know his abilities, know him as🌜 a person. Some riders like to be in the front, others at the back, some like to make their moves in the last minute -  it’s always different,” Laas said.

“It’s like in 🐈normal life, e🌳very person is different and they do things in different ways.”

So far he and Cavendish have barely had an opportunity to practice a lജead out, with the next chances at least a few weeks away after the one bunch sprint there was in Oman.

“I did only one training ride before with Mark and then we started here already here in Oman,&rdqu🎉o; La🌌as said. 

“Before, we never could fit in practising this role for me and for Mark, and now we don’t have any more trainin♏g camps. So it’ll just be in the races where we can get to know each other better.”

The early years and the first sprint with Cavendish

After signing as a pro with the French squad Delko-Marseille-Provence-KTM, Laas spent two years with American Conti’ Team Illuminate, where he was a teammate 🦩with the Vuelta a España’s oldest ever winner, US racer Chris ๊Horner, in Horner’s final season.

“I started cycling when I was 15, before that I did a lot of other sports and then I just loved to ride my bike and ended up in a cycling club,&rdඣquo; Laas said.

“Since then♚ I grew year by year, but though I started quite late in pro cycling, I was always good in sprints.”

“When I moved to amateur teams I knew straight away that on the climbs there was no chance for me bec🅺ause I always suffered. But over a one-minute-to-30-second-period, I knew I could always produce a lot of ꧟power. So I knew I was capable of doing a good sprint.”

“My first years were really difficult, but since my third year as a pro [2018], I’ve started to find myself again and in my last three years, I think I have t💯aken a quite big step.”

Laas is happy with his 2023 form. 

ꦗ“My general level is good, and also𒊎 I know my sprint is still there,” he said.

“Obviously I need to work a little bit on the climbing to get over♋ the mountains but it’s always improving a little. At the moment, the shape is good, the base is good, just missing a bit of race speed and so on.” 

Cavendish finished 21st in the Tour of Oman sprint but Laas was with Cavendish through to the last 500 metres and Astana Qazaqstan&rs💫quo;s management were pleased with how the team produced the leꦆad out.

Astana Qazaqstan a♑re on a brutally steep spr🐭inting learning curve. 

“It’s always difficult ౠto start in a lead-out and s♒print straightaway. But in the end, I think we managed quite well,” Laas said.

“I didn’t get stressed thinking, ‘man, I have to do a lead-out’. Actually, it was nice to work with 💞Mark, it was good.”