Credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us

Credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us

 

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Team High Road Speeds Ahead in 2008

March 24, 2008

High Road’s Bob Stapleton has made an upbeat analysis of his team’s global performance in the first three months of 2008 - highlighting collectively strong rides in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Europe.

“We’ve had a much better start than we could have hoped for.” Stapleton says. “Beginning with a dominating performance by the men’s team in the Tour Down Under, with [multiple stage winner and first rider overall] Andrei Greipel.”

“Then we did well in the Tour of California, despite losing half the team, including our two general classification riders, to illness and injury.”

“In Tirreno-Adriatico, the team performed very well. Thomas [Lovkvist] finshed third overall and took the best young rider’s prize, and Linus [Gerdemann] could well have won the overall [before crashing out injured.]

“As for High Road’s women’s team, we’re doing super, with 14 victories so far this season.”

“So overall, we’re doing very good work as a team and organization”

Throughout all that rush of success, the team has remained faithful to their central philosophy of what Stapleton calls “focusing on the up and coming talent in cycling.”

“Our veteran riders know they are here to be leaders for our younger riders, accelerating their learning curve, and sometimes sacrificing their own chances to do that.   Teamwork, personal commitment and intense focus on the success of the entire team. That’s our team’s fundamental approach.”

The recent Milan - San Remo one-day Classic, for Stapleton, was a case in point. “George [Hincapie], Bernhard [Eisel] and Roger [Hammond] all worked hard to set up Gerald [Ciolek] for the sprint.”

“When that strategy didn’t work out, we went to plan B and had young Thomas Lovkvist attacking with [World Champion, Paolo] Bettini.”

Looking ahead to the fast-approaching cobbled Classics, Stapleton says that he is disappointed that injured one-day star Marcus Burghardt, the team’s winner of Ghent-Wevelgem last year, will not be present. But he insists that the High Road will nonetheless present a powerful roster for April.

“We would really like to see a great result for George [Hincapie] in Roubaix. He’s been a big part of the Classics scene throughout his career, and he’s definitely a candidate for success in April again.”

“It’s a disappointment for Marcus, but be rode a great maiden Tour de France last year and we feel sure he can do that again. He’ll have other chances to shine, too.”

Burghardt is by no means the only injured or ill High Road rider at the moment, and Stapleton argues that “right now our top priority has to get all the guys healthy again. We’ve got a longish list of riders off the bike.”

“Michael Rogers is a complicated case because his illness [Epstein-Barr virus] is a tough one to treat. The good news is Adam Hansen [who crashed badly this spring in Belgium, suffering serious injuries] should be back on his bike very soon.”

“We’re also looking forward to having Linus [injured in Tirreno] back for the Tour and we are fully supporting him toward a speedy recovery so that he can do as well this July as he did last year” [taking a stage win and spending a day in yellow].

GUNNING FOR THE GIRO AND THE TOUR

The first part of 2008 has seen some great news for High Road’s season - their confirmation of a start in both the Giro and the Tour.

“Our relationship with the organizers of both races, ASO and RCS, remains very important to us.” Stapleton says.

“In the past, ASO have seen our younger riders do very well - like in the Tour de L’Avenir, as well as Linus’ great performance in last year’s Tour de France.”

“This year, our roster and the Tour de France in general are going to be wide open. It will be a chance for our talented new faces will shine through once again.”

Team High Road sees its mission shifting further toward developing top young international talent.  “We’ve taken another major step towards creating and developing the big future stars of the sport. That’s what fans and the event organizers want to see and what makes our team attractive.”
 
“We’ve got even more strong young riders on our roster than ever before. 21 riders from our men’s and women’s teams are under 26. “High Road is focused on developing a sound athletic foundation for our team and the sport.  Additionally, “We’ve further extended our commitment to clean cycling and fair sport, based on a comprehensive program with ACE [Agency for Cycling Ethics].”


We are an open team.  In the races we’ll be staying flexible, optimistic and focused on team success together”