Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

HTC-Columbia aim to go one better in Vergada World Cup Round

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Parent Category: Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Category: News 2010

Published on Thursday, 29 July 2010 18:06

Written by Luca Salvatelli

After two second places in the last two years in the Vargada Team Time Trial, HTC-Columbia women's team head for the Swedish round of the World Cup determined to go one better. "Team time trials are one of our big strengths as a squad, so we're detemined to 'set the record straight' and get that first place we've been close to getting in the last couple of years," says HTC-Columbia Sports Director Ronny Lauke.

"It's a challenging course which doesn't give you any opportunities to make mistakes. It's 41 kilometres long and with a tough early section followed by some flatter, more open roads in the last part. We'll decide on things like rider order and whether to go for one lines or two the day before, depending on what kind of form they've got and what their skills are as time triallists. You've got to get a smooth, consistent performance, not one or two good riders dragging the rest of the team along, and we've brought a team with versatile time triallists so that we can adapt to whatever the race throws at us."

Following the team time trial on Friday evening, the squad will remain in Vargada for the 132-kilometre World Cup road race on Sunday. "We're in a good position because Adrie Visser is in good form. She just won a stage of the Tour of Thuringen in Germany, so with her here we don't need to worry if it comes down to a bunch sprint. Since we have that option as back-up, we can try for breaks, too and race really aggressively. So we're coming to the race with an open, flexible strategy, which is good."

HTC-Columbia for Open De Suede Vargada: Kim Anderson (USA); Judith Arndt (Ger); Noemi Cantele (Ita); Linda Villumsen (NZ); Adrie Visser (Hol); Ellen Van Dijk (Hol).