The HTC-Columbia team has chosen to let the road decide who’s strongest during Wednesday’s Flèche Wallonne. Rather than going into the second of the Ardennes Classics with a specific leader, everyone on the squad will be given the opportunity to take the initiative.
“Everybody will have their chance. We’ll be trying to play out all sorts of options,” explained HTC-Columbia’s sports director Valerio Piva.
With the travel chaos caused by the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland, this year the Ardennes will be missing some favorites, but the American team has made provisions to arrive in Belgium on time.
“Rasmus [Guldhammer] has driven up from Italy and Craig [Lewis] came up by car from Spain,” he added. “It’s been quite a trip for both of them, but they’ll have one day to rest before the race itself.”
Organizers have changed the route this year, and Piva thinks the race could see a different ending this time around.
“It’s going to be very different because the second-last ascent of the Mur De Huy climb is much closer to the finish than in previous years,” Piva said. “That means breakaways will have a much better chance of getting away on the second time up the Mur de Huy climb and staying away.”
He also anticipates less riders in contention for victory in the closing kilometers.
“We won’t have 50 riders at the foot of the climb for the third and final ascent like we’ve seen in other years. For HTC-Columbia’s riders, that’s good because they’ll be trying to get in a long-distance attack.”
HTC-Columbia for Flèche Wallonne:
Michael Albasini (Swi), Rasmus Guldhammer (Den); Craig Lewis (USA); Maxime Monfort (Bel); Marco Pinotti (Ita); Martin Velits (Svk), Peter Velits (Svk)