A 6-deoxy-α-L-talopyranoside acceptor was readily prepared from methyl α-L-rhamnopyranoside and glycosylated with thiogalactoside donors using NIS/TfOH as the promoter to give good yields of the desired a-linked disaccharide (69-90%). Glycosylation with a 2-azido-2-deoxy-D-glucosyl trichloroacetimidate donor was not completely stereoselective (α:β = 6:1), but the desired a-linked disaccharide could be isolated in good overall yield (60%) following conversion into its corresponding tribenzoate derivative. The disaccharides were designed to mimic the heparan sulfate (HS) disaccharide GlcN(2S,6S)-IdoA(2S). However, the intermediates readily derived from these disaccharides were not stable to the sulfonation/deacylation conditions required for their conversion into the target HS mimetics.