CYCLING: FORMER Women’s Tour champion Lisa Brennauer will be speeding around Warwickshire today as the annual tour takes over the streets of Leamington.
Brennauer will line up for Canyon Sram Racing after the team announced its roster for the Women’s Tour, which yesterday visited Staffordshire.
British road champion Hannah Barnes spearheads the side while she will be joined by Trixi Worrack, Alena Amialiusik, Tiffany Cromwell and Italian road champion Elena Cecchini.
The Midlands is now strange place for Barnes, who was brought up in Daventry – venue for the opening stage of the tour on Wednesday.
This year’s tour will see the women’s peloton face some long stages over a variety of terrains with the finale taking place near Piccadilly Circus in central London.
Barnes, who won the final stage in 2015 from a bunch sprint, knowns the importance of maintaining form throughout the tour – and she believes her training has gone well.
She said: “The stages are long and the routes are hard so it will be critical to stay well-fuelled and hydrated for the five days.
“I had a small break after Tour de Yorkshire and then started to rebuild.
“I had one week altitude in Park City in USA, then raced the Amgen Tour of California and followed that with a hard training week in California.”
The 24-year-old believes her Canyon Sram team will especially look forward to the longer stages, an attribute which fits perfectly with today’s 151km route.
She said: “All of the stages add a different dimension, but I believe with the team we are taking we can do well in the longer more rolling days.”
Star riders to look out for today include former champions of the UCI Women’s WorldTour Lizzie Deignan and Marianne Vos.
Also lining up will be Elisa Longo Borghini of Wiggle High5, Dani King of Cyclance Pro Cycling, Lucinda Brand from Team Sunweb, and Katie Archibald of team WNT.
