Team High Road will start Tirreno Adriatico tomorrow with a solid team from sprinters to breakaway riders to GC riders.

Mark Cavendish and Gerald Ciolek will both line up as the team sprinters, each looking forward to their first season win after working well together in Tour of California. Both riders come to Italy in great form with Cavendish coming off a win at the British Madison Championships recently and Ciolek well prepared for Tirreno and the following Milan San-Remo which is his big personal goal.

For Roger Hammond, Tirreno is one of his preferred races and with the event being one of the only races that includes a long Time Trial, Bert Grabsch will be out to set a good time to show his rivals and the German Federation that he is the man for the Olympic Games Time Trial.

High Road also has a good GC line up with George Hincapie, Kim Kirchen, Linus Gerdemann and Thomas Lövkvist all on the start list giving the team a lot of flexibility in race tactics.

“Hincapie and kirchen are clearly the riders in the leaders role,” explains Rolf Aldag, “both able to use their experience in the race, while the young stars Gerdemann and Lövkvist have the strength to do something special in the race knowing that they have the full team support.”