Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

HTC-Columbia's Greipel in pole position for one-day classic

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Parent Category: Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Category: News 2010

Published on Thursday, 12 August 2010 09:43

Written by Luca Salvatelli

Germany's André Greipel will lead a powerful HTC-Columbia squad for the Vattenfalls Cyclassic race in Hamburg on Sunday. Part of the ProTour calendar, the 216.4-kilometre long Vattenfalls has a tough series of short sharp climbs close to the finish. But Germany's Greipel, already the winner of 16 races this season, is in great shape and ready to challenge for his country's premier one-day event.

"For Germans this is the biggest race of the country and with huge crowds and lots of friends there, for us it is a very special event," says HTC-Columbia sports director Jan Schaffrath. "Vattenfalls is never an easy race. The climbs aren't so long but they're steep and very narrow, and as it's quite short, just over 200 kilometres, it'll be difficult to control. That said, we have a lot of options. André and Matt [Goss] have shown they're in great shape for the bunch sprints. André won two stages in the Tour of Poland very recently, and Matt did very well winning a stage in the Tour of Denmark. Then we've got [Michael] Albasini and Peter Velits to take care of the team's options on the climbs. So going into Vattenfalls, HTC-Columbia has the riders with the chance to do very well. Knowing that before a race is good for everybody's confidence."

HTC-Columbia for Vattenfalls Cyclassics: Michael Albasini (Swi); Lars Bak (Den); Gert Dockx (Bel); André Greipel (Ger); Matt Goss (Aus); Marcel Sieberg (Ger); Martin Velits (Svk); Peter Velits (Svk).