HIGH ROAD TACKLES BERNE WITH THREE LEADERS

Publiceret af: danny 2008-05-02

High Road will tackle the newly restructured Tour de Berne round of the World Cup on Sunday with three leaders.
“Judith Arndt, Linda Villumsen and Kim Anderson are on paper the ones most likely to do a great ride on Sunday.” team sports director Ronny Lauke says.
“Judith has been the most consistent in all of the last races, and she will be one of the favourites.”
“Everybody will have their chance, but for the other three taking part it depends a bit on how they’re going on the day.”
Radically changed from previous years, Berne now consists of four laps of a 33 kilometre circuit, with a climb four kilometres after the start/finish.
“The climb’s five and a half kilometres long and then it undulates for a while before dropping down again to the finish. That means anybody who does get away on the climb will have to get a really good gap to be sure they stay away.”
The six High Road riders will reconnoitre the course on Saturday morning “by bike, so they can tell where they can recover a bit and where the climb is going to hurt.”
High Road’s leaders have been going full on since February and the Geelong Tour in Australia, and Lauke said that the time would soon be coming for a “bit of a break before the summer for some of our top riders.”
“There are a lot of difficult challenges coming up, like the Tour de L’Aude and its normal you can only hold the form for so long.”
But he was adamant that the fact it was an Olympic year “will not change the structure of riders’ racing programs too much.”
“If you do a race like the Olympics, it’s much better to start with some good results in the bag already. That way you’re more motivated and under less pressure.”
High Road for the Tour de Berne: Kim Anderson (USA); Kate Bates (Aus);  Judith Arndt (Ger); Chantal Beltman (Ned); Linda Villumsen (NZL); Oenone Wood (Aus).