Danes in for a tough race in Hammel
Anders Lund (Saxo Bank) takes to the start line in Hammel, Denmark on Sunday with many of his Saxo Bank team-mates to contest the Danish National Road Race Championship, and the Danes are in for a tough race to decide the national colours of red and white.
A relatively small town to host a championship, Hammel won’t be as much of the focal point, with riders traversing a circuit course that goes around the outskirts of the city. The lap is just ten kilometers in length, and will be ridden twenty times total in the 200km race.
Much of the talk surrounds Pøt Mill Hill, with many believing that the decisive attack will be made on the circuit’s feature climb. Kicking up at an average gradient of almost 10 percent, and spanning almost 600 meters on the road, the summit hits with four kilometers left to race in the circuit. With twenty laps to race, and twenty times up Pøt Mill Hill, the course should most suit the attacking, hill-climbing Danish specialist.
Lund would like to be in the select group that hits the hill on the final lap, but he knows that the race will be difficult, and that it will be some familiar names in with a chance at the national colours.
“It is, of course, expected to be bad weather on Sunday, and with so fierce of a route, it will become a really hard race,” Lund told Feltet.dk. “As it usually does in the Danish nationals, it should become a tactical affair, but I expect that those who will come to contest it will be the usual suspects with especially Nicki [Sorensen – the race’s defending champion – ed.], Chris [Anker Sorensen], Matti [Breschel], [Jakob] Fuglsang, and [Lars] Bak.
“And at Saxo Bank we have another level of riders who can [contest the finale], but it looks like it will be the five men who are unique to such a route who can do something big.
With possible difficult weather and certainly a difficult course on tap, Lund acknowledged that he and his Saxo Bank team-mates should use their numbers advantage to their benefit.
“We must play on the fact that we are the majority, and we will,” Lund continued. “We have just had good preparation with either the Critérium du Dauphiné, the Tour de Suisse, or the Ster ZLM Toer, so it is fairly sharp people coming back. So we expect to be there in the final and hope to be in the majority, because this is how we can make it easier for ourselves.”
The Danish road race championship gets underway at 12:00 in the afternoon, local time.
Danish National Road Race Championship Elite Men (Hammel, 200km) – Other notable starters:
3 Michael Mørkøv (Saxo Bank)
4 Mads Christensen (Saxo Bank)
5 Jonas Aaen Jorgensen (Saxo Bank)
7 Kasper Klostergaard (Saxo Bank)
8 Christopher Juul-Jensen (Saxo Bank)
9 Troels Rønning Vinther (Saxo Bank)
10 Martin Mortensen (Vacansoleil-DCM)
17 Michael Rasmussen (Christina Watches-Onfone)
19 Rene Jørgensen (Christina Watches-Onfone
20 Alexander Kamp Egested (Christina Watches-Onfone)