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.
