Eisel looking for more

By Susan Westemeyer

Bernhard Eisel is looking to do great things this year for his new team, T-Mobile, but knows it won't be easy. "Of course the pressure increases, especially the pressure I put on myself," he told the news agency apa. "So far things have been going well, but if I knew that Paris-Roubaix would go well then I would feel a lot better." He finished fifth in the Hell of the North last season.

Since changing to T-Mobile, Eisel has also changed his preparations and is now working with sport scientist Sebastian Weber. He is now training more intensively, whereas before he tried to find his form though racing. "Victories are the best proof of improvement," he summarised.

Eisel has brought in the only win so far this season for the T-Mobile men's team, winning the second stage of Volta ao Algarve and he subsequently wore the leader's jersey for a day. Those successes were good for his self-confidence, he noted, but he wants to win more and bigger races.

The Austrian sprinter will be starting Tirreno-Adriatico this week, to be followed by Milan-Sanremo, Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix. He also hopes to be on T-Mobile's Tour de France squad.