With the Tour de San Luis less than a month away, the teams taking part in the race are continuing their buildup for the Argentinean event. The Danish Christina Watches-Onfone team has stressed that it doesn’t plan to use the race as training, but will instead ride aggressively and try to clock up some good results.
“We can’t afford to go out and say that we are preparing for something [else] in a race that we are riding,” said directeur sportif Michael Blaudzun to Feltet.dk. “We will try to take victory every time we are in a race, and that is the same whether it is in Argentina in January or in China in October.”
The squad will feature team captain Michael Rasmussen, Angelo Furlan, Frederick Wilmann, Rene Jorgensen, Rasmus Guldhammer and Stefan Schumacher. The latter has joined from Team Miche and, like Rasmussen, has a controversial past that he is trying to put behind him as he rebuilds a career.
Blaudzun states that the sextet have been training well in advance of the race and are aiming to be in good form when it starts on Monday January 23rd. He cautions that it is the first race of the season and therefore they can’t be sure how they will go, but that they have the intention of performing well.
“I am looking forward to seeing how it goes over there, because there is a time trial of 20 kilometres and I have high expectations for Stefan [Schumacher].
“There are also two to three mountain finishes, and so let’s see how sharp Michael [Rasmussen] is. He should be able to race a lot along the way. Frederick Wilmann and Rasmus Guldhammer also race really well uphill. I know from experience that René Jørgensen is always good early in the season, so we will go with a strong team that can surprise.”
The race will run until January 29th and also includes the Saxo Bank team of Alberto Contador, plus riders from Movistar, Omega Pharma Quick Step, Liqugas Cannondale and Ag2r La Mondiale.