castelli-cycling.com

Heinrich Haussler is now a favourite for the Classics thanks to his early season and near-miss in Milano-Sanremo. He has put his name in lights this season with the rapid-fire attack to win the sprint in stage two of Paris-Nice. He nearly did the same thing one week later in Milano-Sanremo. He shot out at 350 metres to go before Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad) caught him back.

Haussler on Tour of Flanders: “My form is still the same. I should be up there. I will hide myself a bit more and ride a bit smarter, he said. Hopefully, there will be more teammates in the end so we can have more options. Thor Hushovd or Andreas Klier can win. We need more numbers, more than Quick Step, Lotto or Rabobank.”

Haussler is taken it easy between the races. When we talked with him a few days ago, he indicated his riding as coffee shop runs (obviously a little more on the harder side.) He said that he saves the real energy bursts for the race days.

“I want to keep my form through Paris-Roubaix. It should hold on if I don’t get sick. I am not doing any really hard training and I am recovering well between races.”

Haussler started his season in Qatar, where he placed several times in the sprints and finished second overall to Tom Boonen (Quick Step). He went on to win two stages in Portugal’s Volta ao Algarve. After the Belgian semi-classic weekend – Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne – he lined up for Paris-Nice.

Thor Hushovd came in 4th, 45 seconds behind Pozzato, Boonen and Iglinskiy at E3 Prijs Vlaanderen (Belgium) on Saturday.

Sporting director Jean-Paul van Poppel commented after the race, “We just missed by about 6 seconds to connect after the final climb. Thor wasn’t able to catch the first three but even so it is a good result, he said. “With this, we are very happy going into the next week with Ronde van Vlaanderen / Tour des Flandres, Gent - Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix.”

RONDE VAN VLAANDEREN, April 5th
Tour of Flanders, held over 264km from Bruges to Ninove-Meerbeke is one of the toughest Classics of the year with the most exciting and knowledgeable spectators you’ll find anywhere. With 16 brutal climbs crammed in to the last 120k, half of them cobbled, with rain, cross winds and riding down tiny narrow roads at 60 km/t in a 150 strong bunch, well it doesn’t get much better.

Keep an eye on the Men-in-Black on Sunday:
211 HAMMOND Roger
212 HAUSSLER Heinrich
213 HUSHOVD Thor
214 KLIER Andreas
215 LANCASTER Brett
216 RASCH Gabriel
217 ROLLIN Dominique
218 ROULSTON Hayden

Carlos Sastre is tuning his form after getting a slow start to the year due to a bout with the influenza virus in February. He finished the Castilla y León in 40th place overall, 6:24 behind Levi Leipheimer. The Cervélo TestTeam rider was happy to finish the race, which he was using as preparation for his first major goal of the season, the Giro d’Italia.

Sastre has changed his program for 2009 to focus on both the Giro and Tour, leaving the Vuelta a España aside for the time being, a switch from his typical racing program that focused on the Tour and then the Vuelta.

The Cervélo Test Team kit is to speed and performance – speed through aerodynamics and reduced weight, but also speed by helping the human body to perform at its maximum potential. We design our garments to help blood flow to the muscles, to help maintain the body at its optimum operating temperature, and to smooth the air flow around the body in real world situations. We then test and refine, test some more, and refine some more, on the road and in the wind tunnel.

Cervélo Aero Race Team Jersey
Two-third of aerodynamic resistance is created by the rider and only 1/3 from the bike. So even small gains here can make a big difference. In fact, testing from the San Diego windtunnel shows that this jersey saves 10 watts when riding with your hands on the hoods at 40 km/h. That translates into about 40 seconds saved every hour compared to a standard cycling jersey.

The jersey was designed with the Castelli Velocity fabric and no extra fabric flapping in the riding position. The cut is small and stretched tightly over the body, with extra-long sleeves that point up and forward. To getting the air to flow efficiently over the rider’s body, the front surfaces of the jersey were made as smooth as possible, with all seams placed outside the air flow; folds and flapping fabric were minimized.

Cervélo Aero Race Bibshort
Features a cutaway front, narrower straps to eliminate the feeling of the straps altogether, no inner leg seams and extra-breathable fabrics. The reduced fabric over the stomach area improves moisture management in a high-sweat area while increasing the ability to breathe deeper from the stomach muscles.

Cervélo Aero Race Shoecovers
With the bike and wheels being so aerodynamic, the air hitting the feet and lower legs is very “clean” and therefore a lot of drag is generated in this area. So we engineered these Cervélo Aero Race Shoecovers to smooth the airflow over the shoe and around the front of the leg, then to smoothly separate from the leg with the structured “golf ball dimple”fabric. These have been shown in the wind tunnel to save 3 watts at 40 km/h, so we strongly recommend the pros to use them in all road race situations except on extremely hot days.

“Time in the wind tunnel is worth its weight in gold”
Cutting wind resistance by fine tuning the athletes position and equipment is worth its weight in gold.
“As a climber, all the seconds I can get in the time trial are important, so to be here, doing this, it’s
these small details that can help me a lot,” Sastre said.

Recent aerodynamic testing at the renowned San Diego Low Speed Wind Tunnel determined that wearing the Cervélo Aero Race Jersey could save 10 watts when riding with your hands on the hoods at 40 km/h over a 40-kilometers distance. That translates into about 40 seconds saved every hour compared to a standard cycling jersey.

Hushovd played with not only his time trial position but also out-of-saddle versus in-saddle drag numbers. “I was shocked to see how the numbers went up as you get out of the saddle,” he said. “It was proof it’s better for me to stay on the wheel until I have to go into the wind.
“Slippery”
Wind tunnel testing enables the various elements that make up a cyclist’s aerodynamic profile to be identified and modified. Once the position of the athlete is dialled in, its up to the various elements of their equipment (bicycle, wheels, bars, clothing etc.) to complement their riding position.
Wind obviously doesn’t just flow over the bicycle alone, or over an individual component such as a wheel. It flows over the combined body of the bicycle and rider.

In a back room at the San Diego Wind Tunnel, Castelli’s Steve Smith counseled Carlos Sastre on the materials in their new race kits.

Nickamed the “Racing Kangaroo,” Haussler’s father is German and his mother Australian. He was raised Down Under, but moved to Germany as a junior once he decided to give it a shot to race his bike professionally. He turned pro young with Gerolsteiner in 2005 and quickly won a stage in that year’s Vuelta a España. Since then, he’s collected a handful of wins each season as he slowly developed his sprint.

We meet up with Haussler at the team presentation in Portugal.

What do you think about your new team?
I really like the team, it makes a big difference from making a change. We have Sastre and some climbers for the grand tours, guys for the classics, guys for the sprints. There are some guys to leadout for the sprinters, it’s perfect.

You look faster this year, what has changed?
I’m training different this year. Years before I was training really long and slow. I never had top form, I always seemed to have 80-90 percent form during the entire year. Now, I am more focused on specific races and training towards them.

Will you be one of the protected sprinters?
If I am racing and Thor Hushovd is there, it’s going to be to help him, no doubt about it. He’s a big sprinter. He proves it all the time. I have no problem riding for Thor and I know I can learn a lot from him.

What is your main schedule of the season?
The last years I was always doing different things, trying to go well in the classics, the sprints and the grand tours. Right now, I am not worrying about the Tour so much. If I go, great, but right now I am more focusing on the one-day races and do as well as I can. I have to build myself up in the next few years, so maybe in a few years more down the road I can try to win a Flanders or Roubaix. That’s the long-term goal. I’m not there yet, but I have a few more years to gain experience. There are a lot guys here I can really learn from, like Roger (Hammond), Andreas (Klier), they’re
guys who’ve done these races. They know what it takes.

Mark Cavendish (Team Columbia - Highroad) narrowly beat Heinrich Haussler and Thor Hushovd in today’s Milano-Sanremo.

Jean-Paul van Poppel, one of the Sports Director’s for todays race commented, “Heinrich started out early to bring Thor into the best position, but he actually went so hard that nobody could hold his wheel at that moment. He slowed down at 100 m and Cavendish was on his way in and just nailed him down within the last 50 m.

“It was all in the game where you look for an opportunity in the moment. Except for Cavendish, if Heinrich could have held for one more second, he would have won. But that was the race.”

Results:
1st Mark Cavendish +6.42.45 44.39 km/h
2nd Heinrich Haussler s.t.
3rd Thor Hushovd +0.02
4th Allan Davis s.t.
5th Alessandro Petacchi s.t.

33th Andreas Klier s.t.
60th Gabriel Rasch +1.51
92th Roger Hammond +8.19
103th Hayden Roulston s.t.
131st Xavier Florencio s.t.
133th Jeremy Hunt s.t.

The Cervélo Pro Cycling TestTeam is participating in the Tour de France 2009. The Amaury Sport Organization (ASO) has announced the wild-card invitations to the 2009 Tour and included the new team in its short list.

“That’s extremely good news for us and it is a great honor to get the trust from the Tour de France organizer to be part of the 2009 Tour,” said Thomas Campana, Managing Sport Director. “We are looking forward to defending the title of Carlos Sastre. It’s a great day here for us today.”

The Tour de France 2009 starts on July 4 in Monaco and ends on July 26 in Paris at the Champs-Elysees