Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Cancellara and Cavendish headline team announcements

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Parent Category: Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Category: News 2010

Published on Friday, 27 August 2010 11:02

Written by Luca Salvatelli

Having passed what many were describing as the hardest part of this year’s world championships – team selection - four of Australia’s final team for next month’s UCI Road World Championships, including nominated team leader Simon Gerrans, will line up this weekend in the Vuelta a España.

Gerrans, who last year won a stage at the Vuelta a España to become the first Australian in history to take a stage win at each of the three grand Tours, is joined by recent GP Ouest France – Plouay winner Matthew Goss (HTC – Columbia), 2009 Tour Down Under champion Allan Davis (Astana) and Australian cycling workhorse Stuart O’Grady (Saxo Bank).

The event, starting tomorrow in Seville and finishing in Madrid on Sunday, 19 September, will be a major lead up event for many of the world championship contenders with few expected to complete the full three-week event.

Start list for Melbourne – Geelong growing

Meanwhile, the start list for next month’s UCI Road World Championships is beginning to take shape with Olympic and three-time world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara (SUI) and 2009 Vuelta a España points classification winner André Greipel (GER) headlining the first international team announcements.

Cancellara, who could become the first man to win four world time trial championships, has his sights set on the elusive road race rainbow jersey.

"My ambitions are always high and I tried to get the double in Switzerland when Cadel Evans won and I was close but now I have to see forward to Geelong,” Cancellara told Ozcycling.com.

"I have heard a lot but in the end its gonna (sic) be hard for sure but I will try what I can but the main goal for sure will be more for the road race but I have already three medals from the time trial. I have high ambitions and I want to go what I still don’t have and that’s a world championship in the road race.”

In the latest team announcement, Great Britain announced their two support riders for 15-time Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish (GBR) who was rated by many as the man to beat when the world championships course was first revealed.

Current British road race champion Geraint Thomas and former two-time national champion Jeremy Hunt will fill the only two remaining positions of Great Britain’s team after the nation failed to qualify a full contingent of cyclists.

As speculation that the course is significantly more difficult than most expected continues to grow, Cavendish has been forced to defend his ability on Geelong’s roads as the fellow riders dismiss the 25-year-old as a major threat.

Even Italian favourite Filippo Pozzato, who has set the world championships as his major goal for the season, questioned Cavendish’s ability to handle the hills.

"I don’t know if Cavendish has seen the course but I think he will also be in for a shock. He surprised us all when he won Milan-San Remo but I went to Australia in July with Bettini specifically to see the course and came back knowing that the two climbs on each of the laps and especially the rising finish will be too tough for the sprinters," Pozzato wrote.

"The climbs are short but they hurt, while the finish has a gradient of 2% for the first part and then rises at 4% for the final four hundred metres."

But Cavendish is not taking a step back, confident he will have what it takes to take home the rainbow jersey.

"Are they sure they'll drop me so easily?" asks Cavendish.

"I hope to be at my very best in Melbourne and then we'll talk about it…"

The UCI Road World Championships, held from Wednesday 29 September to Sunday 3 October, will include road races and individual time trials for elite men and women and under-23 men.

As a prelude to the championships, the Herald Sun World Cycling Classic Ballarat will take place on Sunday, 26 September.

2010 UCI Road World Championships – Elite Men’s Team Announcements

Australia

Baden Cooke (Saxo Bank)

Allan Davis (Astana)

Cadel Evans (BMC)

Simon Gerrans (Team Sky)

Matthew Goss (HTC – Columbia)

Mathew Hayman (Team Sky)

Stuart O’Grady (Saxo Bank)

Michael Rogers (HTC – Columbia)

Wesley Sulzberger (Francaise des Jeux)

Germany

Marcus Burghardt (BMC)

Bert Grabsch (HTC-Columbia)

Andre Greipel (HTC-Columbia)

Danilo Hondo (Lampre)

Christian Knees (Team Milram)

Sebastian Lang (Silence-Lotto)

Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia)

Marcel Sieberg (HTC-Columbia)

Fabian Wegmann (Team Milram)

Netherlands (6 of 9 announced)

Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank)

Jos van Emden (Rabobank)

Lars Boom (Rabobank)

Karsten Kroon (BMC)

Sebastian Langeveld (Rabobank)

Niki Terpstra (Milram)

Switzerland (6 of 9 announced)

Michael Albasini (HTC – Columbia)

Fabian Cancellera (Saxo Bank)

Martin Elminger (ag2r-La Mondiale)

Steve Morabito (BMC)

Gregory Rast (RadioShack)

Oliver Zaugg (Liquigas-Doimo)

Great Britain

Mark Cavendish (HTC – Columbia)

Jeremy Hunt (Cervélo)

Geraint Thomas (Team Sky)