A great weekend of racing for Team High Road.

April 07, 2008

Beginning with two stage wins for Mark Cavendish in the Three Days of De Panne early in the week, High Road went on to have a very successful week of racing finishing the week with four victories, some great performances and the retaining of the ProTour lead.

Cavendish, having just become a World Champion on the track competing in the Madison with British and High Road teammate Bradley Wiggins, took his first road wins for the season, sprinting to victory in stage Two and Three of the Three Days of de Panne.

“I’m very pleased to get this first road-race win of 2008 because it’s been quite a long time coming and I’ve had some very near misses,” said Cavendish of his first road win. Compared with last year I’m doing a lot better in this race. I was finishing well down on every stage here in De Panne, maybe in the last 40 riders.”

Across the Atlantic the High Road Women’s team had a good start to the Redlands Classic with young US National Champion Mara Abbott convincingly winning the uphill prologue and taking the race lead. The youngest member of the team Emilia Fahlin (19) of Sweden won stage three and the team ended the Tour with Abbott in second overall in a very tight finish with Webcor’s Alex Wrebleski . High Road’s Kim Anderson finished in fifth place.

In the Netherlands, Tony Martin and Adam Hansen put on an amazing display to finish One, Two in Hel van het Mergelland. The pair broke away after 15km and held a six minute lead at the end of the 187km race. The wet and freezing conditions made the race epic as did the very rare occasion that saw two riders from the same team win in such a unique way.

“I honestly can’t remember anything like this happening before in a bike race, two team-mates
going away so early and staying away right to the finish,” explained team director Tristan Hoffman.

What made the race even more memorable within the team was the complete sacrifice of Hansen, giving his teammate the win without question. Hansen explained that when he gave Martin the win. “the smile on his face was priceless. It was a good feeling.”

Ronde Van Vlaanderen topped off the weekend with the men and the women’s team both having great rides. High Road’s Judith Arndt won the women’s race which is also the third round of the Women’s UCI World Cup Series and one of the most prestigious races on the calendar. Arndt, who is former World Champion was very excited to win this race. A race she had been concentrating on.

"It was some great team-work," she said. "We were always in the breakaway with Chantal [Beltman] and Luise [Keller], and it was just a perfect race by the whole High Road squad.”

In the men’s race High Road had George Hincapie in a five person break near the end of the race. The break was looking good but was caught on the Muur of Geraardsbergen and had to recover as counter attacks continued.

Three riders got away with Stijn Devolder of Quick Step solo in the lead. Hincapie’s group finished 20 seconds down with Hincapie taking second place in the sprint and fifth place in the race.

"I was just pulled back on the Muur, and from that moment I had to recover," he explained. Then it was very hectic, with a lot of attacks, I could not do anything but hold on."

Andre Greipel retained the ProTour leaders jersey and now leads by 12 points over Stijn Devolder.

The coming week sees the team racing in Pais Vasco which started today, Gent -Wevelgem on Wednesday and Paris Roubaix on the weekend with the women's team competing in Drenthe which includes the fourth round of the World Cup Series.

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A great weekend of racing for Team High Road.