Columbia Highroad on Hunt in Dauphine Libere

Columbia-Highroad will be on a quest for stage wins in the Dauphine Libere stage race, which starts this Sunday with a 12-kilometre time trial in Nancy, France.  “We’ll be looking at the race on the day-by-day rather than going for the overall classification,” commented team sports director Allan Peiper.  A lot of the guys taking part for Columbia-Highroad normally don’t get many opportunities to shine on their own account, and the Dauphine Libere this year will be a great chance for them to do so.  Marcel Sieberg, for example, will have a chance to go for it in the sprints. Normally he’s working for other guys on the flat stages.  Then there’s two time trials, and Bert [Grabsch] did well in one recently in the Bayern Rundfahrt, so they should be good for him.”

Referring to 61st running of the 8-stage, 1027-kilometre race through the Dauphine region, Peiper added, “The Dauphine Libere is a great event, in any case, one of the last where you get to see old-style French stage racing.  As for the guys who did the Tour of Italy like Michael [Barry] and Morris [Possoni], they’ll either be flying or exhausted. That’s always the way after a major stage race.”

“I was recovering well after each stage in the Tour of Italy and my fitness level is good, so I should be ok,” adds Michael Barry.  How well I do in the Dauphine Libere just depends on how solid my form is. I’ve just done a big block of racing, starting with the Tour of Romandie and then the Giro.  For many of the guys in the Dauphine Libere, this is the last race before the Tour de France, plus the terrain ranges from hilly to very mountainous.  So really the Dauphine Libere becomes a gauge for them for July. That makes it an exciting, fast-moving event where anything can happen.”

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