|
||||
|
Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling will start Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad as one of the top teams to watch, as the European racing season gets under way on the cobbled roads of Flanders. The race is the first event of what the locals refer to as the “openingsweekend,” will start and finish in the East Flanders city of Ghent, and includes several of the steep climbs and cobbled roads that make the region’s cycling so special. The black and orange team will be led by Ghent native Jolien D’hoore, who approaches the race after her first track-free winter in several years. The former Belgian Champion has instead spent the cold, wet months riding and training over the very roads that the race will follow on Saturday. 
“It’s going to be a really big day,” D’hoore said. “It’s the first Classic race in Belgium, and everybody’s looking forward to it. Also me; I’m riding on my home roads, and I’m really excited to get the season started in Belgium. “I'm feeling good, but we'll have to wait and see because this is my first race,” she added. “It has been quite a different winter for me, this year, in not doing the track. So I don’t know how it will go in my first road race, but I’m confident and I’m feeling good. So, yeah, we’ll have to see.” Alongside D’hoore will be 2015 Ronde van Vlaanderen winner Elisa Longo Borghini, whose own history in the race means she will be out to make things difficult for her rivals. The Italian first came to international prominence - as a 19-year-old - as she finished fifth in the wet, cold conditions of the 2011 edition. “I’m always playing the same role, and I like it!” D’hoore laughed. “I just have to hang on; I have to struggle during the race, and then I hope to be there in the end. But then we have Elisa to make it a hard race. She can go solo, or in a small group.” 
The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad will see the Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling debut for new signing Claudia Lichtenberg. Despite her diminutive climber’s build, the 31-year-old German has continually proved herself to be as strong as any over the cobbles of Belgium. “Claudia is really small, but she’s so strong,” said D’hoore. “She can do everything, apparently. She’s supposed to be a climber, and she can climb, and she can do cobbles; she can ride in the wind. She’s so useful for the team; we’re going to need her, I think, from race one until the end of the season! “Also Audrey [Cordon-Ragot] is looking very, very strong. Together with Claudia, they can race hard and I know they’re strong enough to keep it to the finish. It’s up to me to try to follow them! “We have many options now!” D’hoore added. 
The black and orange team will be completed in Saturday’s race by British two-time Junior World Champion Lucy Garner and former Danish Champion Julie Leth. Following Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling will travel to the east of Brussels for the Omloop van het Hageland. The 1.1-ranked race is a special one in the history of the black and orange squad, as it was where New Zealander Emily Collins took the team’s first ever victory in 2013; it was D’hoore’s first win for Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling, in 2015, in an incredible season that saw her take a total of 13 victories. “I really like the course in Hageland,” D’hoore smiled. “It’s a tough course, and if there’s wind… Of course, you know, there’s also a hill in it. We can make it a hard race I always love to race over there. We just have to see how the race will evolve, with the race tactics and everything, but I’m pretty confident we can also pull off a result there.” D’hoore will once again be joined by Longo Borghini and Leth, in a changed team that will include 19-year-old Grace Garner, Mayuko Hagiwara and Amy Roberts; all of whom - along with Leth - took part in Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s successful Australian summer campaign. Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling team for the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling team for the Omloop van het Hageland |
||||
;