Impressive week for the Cervélo TestTeam
The past week has been very very successful for the Cervèlo TestTeam with Hushovd’s podium place at Paris-Roubaix and Haussler’s impressive ride in cycling’s toughest one-day classics which also made him the new leader of the UCI World Ranking list. Canadian Dominque Rollin steered clear of the nasty crash 200m before the finish to earn his first European podium at Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen.
If that wasn’t enough, the women’s Cervélo TestTeam had two victories when Claudia Häussler won the Rund um Schönaich (Germany), and the Austrian national TT champion Christina Soeder got her first time-trail victory of the season in Hungary. Both the men and women teams are now ranked second in the UCI wold ranking list.
Next one up is the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, April 19th. The race is characterized by its 31 climbs over the 258.6 kilometers of narrow crazy roads which will be packed with cycling-crazed spectators.
The Cauberg comes each time in the three final circuits and leaves the riders with no energy. Another hard one is the Eyserbosweg where the race really develops from there. It is short, but it starts off with a steep gradient of around 20 percent. With there being no cobbles in the race, it will be another test for riders, with the short, steep and energy-sapping climbs, guaranteed to split the field in the final 30 kilometers.
With this in mind, look out for our Aussie duo Heinrich Haussler and Simon Gerrans. Haussler has the form, power and speed (seen in Milano-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix), while Gerrans is a great climber and finisseurs.
Provisional start list for Amstel Gold Race:
181 Philip Deignan (Irl)
182 Xavier Florencio Cabré (Spa)
183 Simon Gerrans (Aus)
184 Heinrich Haussler (Ger/ Aus)
185 Andreas Klier (Ger)
186 Daniel Lloyd (Gbr)
187 Serge Pauwels (Bel)
188 Dominique Rollin (Can)