Aiming for a strong showing in as many races as possible in order to improve the sponsorship chances for 2011, Team Milram will line out in the Dauphiné Libéré with its GC hopes based around Christian Knees.
The 29 year old intends to use the race as a goal in itself, and also to prepare for the Tour in July.
“It will be a difficult and interesting race,” said Knee. “It starts out with a prologue. The time trial on Wednesday will be good for me. Then it gets more and more difficult from stage to stage. Overall it is a very good opportunity to look at some of the mountains and parts of the course for the Tour de France.”
The team performed strongly last year, taking a stage win and briefly holding the leader’s yellow jersey with the Dutchman Niki Terpstra. He’ll miss the race this year, but Knees will be joined by the climber Thomas Rohregger, Markus Eichler, Thomas Fothen, Roger Kluge, Dominik Roels, Wim De Vocht and Roy Sentjens.
The race starts on Sunday with a six kilometre prologue in Evian les Bains, the area from which Evian mineral water is sourced. After flowing around the course, the riders will continue with a 191 kilometre stage to Saint Laurent du Pont. The most important leg will almost certainly be the penultimate stage, which travels to the top of Alpe d’Huez and marks that climb’s debut in the race.
Defending Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is one of the big guns riding the event and may choose to put on a show there. Last year’s winner is Alejandoro Valverde, but he’ll miss the race after being handed a lengthy ban by the Court of Arbitration for sport.
The race will total 1070 kilometres in length, concluding in Sallances, the venue for Bernhard Hinault’s 1980 world championship victory.
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Dauphiné Libéré 2010 :
Prologue, June 6 : Evian-les-Bains (6 km)
Stage 1, June 7 : Evian-les-Bains - Saint-Laurent-du-Pont (191 km)
Stage 2, June 8 : Annonay - Bourg-Saint-Andéol (177 km)
Stage 3, June 9 :Stage: Monteux - Sorgues (49 km)
Stage 4, June 10 : Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux – Risoul (210 km)
Stage 5, June 11: Serre-Chevalier - Grenoble (143,5 km)
Stage 6, June 12: Crolles - Alpe-d’Huez (151,5 km)
Stage 7, June 13: Allevard-les-Bains - Sallanches (148 km)