Garmin-Barracuda: Aiming to hit the repeat button
- By Andrew Hood
- Published Jan. 25, 2012
- Updated Jan. 31, 2012 at 3:48 PM EDT
Classics combo
Garmin-Barracuda brings a solid classics core back for the Belgian and French classics. Johan Van Summeren will return as defending Roubaix champion, but he admits he will not be the pre-race favorite.
“We will have a strong team for the classics, but we will not be the favorite to win,” Van Summeren said. “We can bring our team to the front and have four or five guys in each race ready to be in position to win. That’s what we have to do.”
Key to the team’s chances is a healthy Heinrich Haussler. The German-Aussie roared through the 2009 classics season, finishing second in Milan-San Remo and Tour of Flanders, but he’s since been hampered with crashes and illnesses.
“I am finally feeling good again and want to go into the classics this season and have some good results, just to prove to everyone it wasn’t a one-off,” Haussler said. “For me this year, it’s all about the classics and the Olympics.”
Farrar, too, has some unfinished business with the classics. Races such as Ghent-Wevelgem and Scheldeprjis are ideal for his characteristics.
“I keep chipping away at them. I would love to win one of those races one of these years,” Farrar said. “Winning a one-day race is always complicated. Everything has to go right. We will have a strong classics team.”
FILED UNDER: News / Road TAGS: Christian Vande Velde / Garmin-Barracuda / Garmin-Cervelo / Johan Van Summeren / Tyler Farrar
Andrew Hood
Hood cut his journalistic teeth at Colorado dailies before the web boom opened the door to European cycling in the mid-1990s. Hood's covered every Tour since 1996 and has been VeloNews' European correspondent since 2002. He lives in Leon, Spain, when he's not chasing bike races.