Monday 19 January 2015 12:28, UK
Andy Fenn is hoping to make his mark as a classics rider with Team Sky in 2015 after ending a frustrating three-year stint at Omega Pharma – Quick-Step.
The 24-year-old Scot found opportunities to ride cycling’s biggest one-day races hard to come by with the Belgian super-team and has consequently so far failed to fulfil the potential he showed as a junior.
Fenn does not regret his decision to join Omega Pharma – Quick-Step but admits he is pleased to have a fresh start at Team Sky and is keen to play his part in what the British squad hope will be a successful classics campaign.
“I wasn’t really sad to leave [Omega Pharma-Quick-Step],” Fenn told skysports.com. “I wasn’t unhappy that I joined them, but I am happy to be here now.
“There’s a push from the team for the classics this year and hopefully I can contribute to that. The first part of the season for me is all about the classics and becoming a part of that group of guys.”
Fenn announced himself as a potential one-day star of the future by winning the Junior Paris-Roubaix in 2008, finishing fifth in the under-23 version of the race in 2011 and then claiming a bronze medal in the under-23 world championship road race later that year.
However, he was unable to break into Omega Pharma – Quick-Step’s all-star classics squad, regularly being squeezed out by established names such as Tom Boonen and Zdenek Stybar, as well as emerging riders such as Guillaume van Keirsbulck.
With Team Sky’s classics squad already boasting the likes of Geraint Thomas, Ian Stannard and Sir Bradley Wiggins, Fenn admits it is once again unlikely he will get the chance to challenge for wins this year, but he is content for now just to have the chance to start races.
He added: “Maybe I will get an opportunity to try for something myself in the smaller races building up to the bigger ones, but we will have to see how it goes.
“You have got guys here who have already proven themselves. I have never even started the big classics and that is going to be new to me.”
I have been out of the British public’s eye a little bit. Being in a Belgian team means you maybe get lost a little bit.
On top of his early-career successes at Paris-Roubaix and the world championships, Fenn also won a British under-23 road race title and medals on the track at both the junior European and British championships.
They hinted that a high-profile career awaited him, but he admits his move to Europe has left him in the shadow of other, more celebrated British riders.
“I have been out of the British public’s eye a little bit,” Fenn said. “This is Britain’s professional cycling team so this is where the press is going to come, especially with what they are achieving. Being in a Belgian team means you maybe get lost a little bit.”
With so much focus on the classics, Fenn admits he does not yet know what shape the remainder of his season will take.
“The idea at the moment is after the classics to reassess and see what happens,” he added. “Most of the guys who did the classics start again at the Tour of California, but I won’t be jumping into the Giro [d'Italia]. There are a lot of other races towards the end of the season. Whether I get a start at the Vuelta [a Espana], I don’t know.”
