Course fits confident HTC Columbia rider’s characteristics
On Sunday, the Belgian time trial championships will be held in Habay-la-Neuve. Maxime Monfort of the HTC Columbia team is ready to defend his title that he obtained one year ago in Saint Ghislain. He will have strong opposition from riders like Stijn Devolder (time trial champion in 2008) or Leif Hoste, among others.
The riders face 46 kilometers in the province of Luxembourg – a loop of 17km followed by a loop of 29km. Monfort is not getting worked up too much about his title defense. “Let’s simply say that I didn’t make the Belgian Nationals a big objective, like I did last year – but I did prepare it,” he told La Dernière heure.
Monfort spent more time with his family, then went back to work. “I concentrated for this event by working specifically, while still being able to take care of my two women,” he said. Monfort and his wife have a daughter, who was born during the 2010 Tour de France. “The work is done, I am ready,” he says. “I feel the pressure going up, which is a good sign.”
There are only 12 competitors in the event, but winning will be still hard. Besides the 2008 champion Devolder, the runner-ups of last year, Sébastien Rosseler and Dominique Cornu, start the race. “There is also Leif Hoste, who is riding again. But I don’t know what kind of form he is in,” Monfort says. “To be honest, I also don’t know the condition of the other competitors.”
Monfort does not give this lack of knowledge too much thought. “At any rate, in a time trial my only opponent is myself,” he declares. He will start on Sunday at 16:54, as the last rider to go.
Monfort had a nice season with the Belgian jersey. In his last race in 2009, he was fourth in the Chrono des Nations – Les Herbiers. In May he won the time trial at the Tour of Bavaria, which clinched him the overall victory in the week-long stage race in Germany. In this year’s Tour de France, he finished 14th in the time trial between Bordeaux – Pauillac.