Wiggle-Honda’s British track stars are set to begin their road season in earnest over the next few weeks and, unsurprisingly, the Women’s Tour is a huge target for the British registered team. The riders’ programmes were set at a recent team training camp in Northern Italy, where the entire team came together for the first time this year.
Whilst none of the Brits are likely to be involved in weekend’s Tour of Flanders, Laura Trott, Dani King, Amy Roberts and Elinor Barker are all scheduled to start the 113km, GP Dottingines in the Netherlands on Monday.
All four will then ride the five day Energiewacht Tour, before Joanna Rowsell returns for the last European World Cup race of the Spring at la Flèche Wallonne. The double track World Champion will be joined by Laura Trott and Dani King to test themselves against the fearsome slopes of the Mur de Huy on April 23rd.
Team manager, Rochelle Gilmore, believes the three Olympic track stars have what it takes to succeed in Belgium. “They’re explosive and I imagine it [the Mur de Huy] will be about the three minute mark, which is what they do,” she told told Cycling Weekly.
“They can go really deep, certainly a lot deeper than a lot of the pure road riders, because they race at high intensities. Jo did really well last year in Flèche, so I think that she and Laura both have pretty high expectations at Flèche.”
All roads then lead to the Women’s Tour in May, where all five British riders on the team have the chance to ride. “It really is a big ambition for us being a British team and also for Laura, having a stage in her home town. We’d like to win it definitely. We didn’t design the course and we can’t say that it’s perfect for us, but it has to be an ambition of ours, no matter what.”
The Women’s Tour begins in Oundle, Northamptonshire on May 7th, finishing on the 11th in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
