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Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s Jolien D’hoore will be among the top favourites for victory in Sunday’s Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta, as she leads the black and orange team around the streets of the Spanish capital. The 87km race will be the finale to the first ever season-long Women’s WorldTour, and will be staged ahead of the ceremonial final stage of the men’s Vuelta a España, much as La Course was run alongside the final stage of the tour de France in July. 
“I’m hopefully trying to get a result, together with the team,” D’hoore said, ahead of her flight from her home in Belgium to the Spanish capital. “It’s an unexpected race for me, because I don’t know it was going to happen, it’s new for me. But it’s a crit, so I hope for a bunch sprint. “There is a lot of prestige,” the former Belgian Champion continued. “It’s like on the Champs-Elysées [in Paris], but in Spain, so it means a lot if you can win a race like this. It’s on national television as well, also in Belgium, so it’s quite important.” Since bringing home a Bronze Medal from the Olympic Games Omnium, on the Rio track, D’hoore has made a successful return to the road in the Boels Dolmans Ladies Tour, in the Netherlands, this month. Despite finishing on the podium in the bunch sprint on Stage 5, a season concentrating on the track made it a tough week for D’hoore, but she was pleased to make her return for more than one reason. “Actually I was quite happy and relieved that I could go and ride the Boels Tour, because it was so hectic with a lot of people coming to our home,” she smiled. “It was a busy week after the Olympics, so I was happy to race and just get my mind on something else. “I think I’m ready now for what’s coming, in the coming weeks. So yeah, bring it on.” The Madrid Challenge will be an important step for D’hoore, and many other sprinters in the women’s peloton, in the build up to the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, in October. Having achieved her Olympic Medal, however, the Belgian is more relaxed than many others as she enters the final stages of the season. “My first goal for this season was the Olympics, and now I’ve got a medal, so I’m going with no pressure to Doha,” she confirmed. “I’ll just see how my form is in the coming weeks, and how I will recover from the Olympics. I have no stress, and no worries, so it should be fine.” 
Alongside D’hoore in the Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling team will be fellow sprinters Chloe Hosking, Lucy Garner and Amy Pieters. Hosking has already taken arguably the most prestigious sprint victory of the year, in La Course, and has worked in a formidable partnership with D’hoore on many occasions. The Australian is one of the best lead out riders in the peloton, but also one of the fastest sprinters too. Garner finished fifth in last year’s inaugural Madrid Challenge, and won the trophy for Best Young Rider. Flying the flag for the host nation will be Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s Spanish Champion Anna Sanchis. At the end of a difficult season for the 28-year-old Valencian she will once again have the honour to wear her red and yellow “Rojigualda” jersey on the streets of her national capital. “After a rest time without competing, I have a great desire to race,” Sanchis said in her recent blog, where she also looks ahead to 2017 with Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling. “We bring a very strong team and I just think to do everything in my power to help my team win the final victory.” “It must be very special for Anna to ride a race like this,” D’hoore concurred. “I hope she can show herself for the Spanish public as well. I think she can do a good race. “Of course we also have Amy Pieters in the team as well, and Chloe [Hosking], who are really fast as well. So yeah, we have different cards to play.” Completing the Wiggle high5 Pro Cycling team will be French Time Trial Champion Audrey Cordon-Ragot, whose attacking style and road captaincy skills have been central to so much of the black and orange team’s success. 
Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling team for the Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta
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