Showing the benefits of specific training at the discipline carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, the HTC Highroad women raced to victory yesterday night in the City Trophy Elsy Jacobs team time trial in Luxembourg.
The team was led by national champions Judith Arndt, Evelyn Stevens and Emilia Fahlin, as well as former world champ Amber Neben, plus Charlotte Becker and Amanda Miller.
As documented in this video clip, the HTC Highroad riders had undergone specific TTT practice this week in Germany with a view to improving their ability as a group.
“It was a really good result and a great performance,” said HTC-Highroad sports director Ronny Lauke. “The early teams got the best times when it was still light and dry and although we were the last ones to start when it was darker and had been raining, we still managed to beat them.”
The team was the only one to go under seven minutes for the 5.1 kilometre distance, and beat closest rivals Australia by three seconds.
Lauke said that tactics were vitally important . “On such a short course, you had to plan your strategy very carefully if you wanted to win…there was no room for mistakes. We deliberately took it a bit easier on the first of the three laps because we'd seen teams had lost a lot of time in the last part of the race.
“So although we weren't the fastest early on, we maintained our speed and kept rolling through all the way to take the win.”
One of the big goals for the team is the Open de Suède Vargarda T.T.T, one of the rounds of the World Cup. HTC Highroad has finished second in the past three editions, and is determined to win it this time round.