Before defending his world champion title in the individual time trial, Tony Martin will seek to add another world championship win to his palmares when he leads his Omega Pharma - Quickstep team in the team time trial on Sunday at the UCI Road World Championships. Martin has been preparing specifically for the individual TT held three days after the team event and will not participate in the road race.
"The riders are motivated," said Sports Director Wilfred Peeters. "We did some specific training but it will be important that on Friday and Saturday, we will do more training on the parcour to tune up all of the duties and responsibilities of each rider - the perfect line, who takes the corners, who makes the final effort, things like that.
"It's a very dynamic parcour with some tricky roundabouts, but also with some climbs. The Cauberg for the final will be really difficult. The team is good. The riders that are part of the team are really good and prepared for this race. In general I have a good feeling, and we are quite confident for the race," he said.
Joining the current German national champion Martin in the 53.2km race will be national TT champions Kristof Vandewalle (Belgium), Sylvain Chavanel (France) and Peter Velits (Slovakia) with Niki Terpstra and the in-form Tom Boonen filling the final spots.
"We have the ITT World Champion and German Champion in Tony Martin, a strong rider like Niki Terpstra, Tom Boonen who proved he is in very good condition at the moment and three other ITT national champions in Vandewalle, Peter Velits and Sylvain Chavanel. Those three are in good condition and ready to fight for a solid result. Our goal is to get a spot on the podium," said Peeters.
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