Form built in the final week of the Tour de France should see Slovakian well on Jaizkibel climb
HTC-Highroad will go into tomorrow’s Clásica San Sebastian with the aim of getting Peter Velits in the podium, even though the team will be starting with six riders instead of eight. Although the Slovakian rider was off the pace in the first mountain stages of the Tour de France, in the Pyrénées, he came into form in the final week; finishing fourth on Alpe d’Huez and ninth in the final Grenoble time trial.
This final week performance helped Velits finish nineteenth overall, and the team hopes that this form will stand him in good stead on the hilly Basque course.
“The goal is to get Peter on the podium,” said HTC-Highroad sports director Allan Peiper. “He had a great last week of the Tour, came out of that pretty well.
“The final two laps of the Clásica over the Jaizkibel climb suit him and he’s pretty fast in a sprint, too,” he added. “He’s got good morale as well, which is what counts for a lot in a race like the Clásica that comes straight after the Tour.”
With most of the action in the race likely to come in the final 90km, when the course climbs the Alto Jaizkibel twice, the team will keep Velits out of trouble on the way there.
“The rest of the team will be making sure we’ve got riders in any big early breaks,” explained Peiper. “But really our strategy is going to consist of getting Peter to the foot of the Jaizkibel in good condition and ready to try his luck.”
Velits is the only member of HTC-Highroad’s Tour de France team to be riding in San Sebastian, with the majority of the rest of the roster having ridden the Österreich-Rundfahrt, where current German – and former World – time trial champion Bert Grabsch won the time trial.
HTC-Highroad team for the Clásica San Sebastian:
Matt Brammeier, Jan Ghyselinck, Bert Grabsch, Patrick Gretsch, Hayden Roulston and Peter Velits