The competition winners line up for photos : Mara Abbott (Team Columbia) (mountains), Claudia Hausler (Cervelo Test Team) (overall) and Lizzie Armitstead (Lotto Belisol) (young rider)(Image credit: CJ Farquharson/WomensCycling.net)
Amy Pieters (Team Giant-Shimano) claimed a nice trophy(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Lucy Garner , Giant Shimano leads th emain group with 1 to go.(Image credit: Cyclingnews/Mark Gunter)
Lucy Garner smiles through the rain(Image credit: Rob Lampard)
The hills hurt - Claudia Hausler (Germany) shows her effort(Image credit: CJ Farquharson/WomensCycling.net)
The Giant-Shimano Women's team enters the Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile with a squad capable of challenging for stage wins and the overall. Claudia Lichtenberg [nee Häusler - who is recently married] won the race in 2009 as she set up the overall win with an impressive stage victory.
Lichtenberg was third overall last year and also finished fourth in 2010 and her experience will be important to the team's results in the 10-stage race also known as the Giro Rosa.
"The main goal here is to race in an attractive way and make sure that we try to always be present in the dangerous breakaways and to support Claudia as much as possible," the teams coach Hans Timmermans said.
"Last year Lichtenberg finished third and has won before, and she has shown recently that she is in good condition by taking fifth at the Emakumeen Bira.
"We also have Lucy [Garner] and Amy [Pieiers] here who can perform well in the sprints. The rest of the women are also in good shape and I think that we can go for a good result everyday and challenge well here in Italy."
Giant-Shimano Women's team for Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile: Lucy Garner, Claudia Lichtenberg, Willeke Knol, Sara Mustonen, Amy Pieters, Maaike Polspoel, Julia Soek and Marijn De Vries.
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