High Road's Kirchen aiming high in Switserland

Photo: courtesy Wim Dingemanse

Photo: courtesy Wim Dingemanse

Second in the Tour of Switzerland last year, High Road’s Kim Kirchen will be aiming for the overall again in the nine day race which starts on Saturday.

“Kim was going well in the Bayern Rundfahrt even after a long break from racing in May.” commented team sports director Brian Holm. “But he told us that he was quite tired after the team training camp we’ve just had in the Pyrenees.”

“We’re hoping he’ll move up another level here in Switzerland, it’s clearly a race that suits him.”
“We’ll take it on the day by day. If he loses five minutes in the first mountain top finish, then we’ll ease back. If not, not. There’s no pressure.”

“We’re not too worried about him going in too deep here then paying the price in the Tour de France. He finished second here then seventh in the Tour in 2007, so you can’t say riding hard here did his chances much harm in July!”
Holm says the route is “very different from last year, but Kim should be able to handle it. The big mountain time trial [on the penultimate stage] is what will make all the difference.”

Marcus Burghardt’s participation in the Tour of Switzerland is a welcome sign that the German is recovering well from his injuries, “but we don’t know yet whether he’ll be ready for the Tour. That may come too soon for him; we’ll get a better idea after this race.”

As for sprinter Gerald Ciolek, following his two stage wins in Bayern, Holm says “it’s pretty clear that form-wise Gerald is where he should be for this time of year. Now we’ll have to see if he can do as well in Switzerland as he did in Germany, but with a rider like Gerald, it’s hard not to be optimistic.”

High Road for Tour of  Switzerland: Marcus Burghardt (Ger); Edvald Boasson-Hagen (Nor); Gerald Ciolek (Ger); Kim Kirchen (Lux); Thomas Lovkvist (Swe); Morris Possoni (Ita); Vicente Reynes (Spa); Marcel Sieberg (Ger).

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