Team High Road's Michael Rogers will make his returns to racing in the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya on Monday. The former World Time Trial Champion was stricken with the Epstein-Barr virus earlier this year. "It's going to be very difficult for Mick in Catalonia, but he has to start somewhere if he wants to be at a good level for the summer," said team director Allan Peiper.
"Really there aren't any other options apart from Catalunya and it would be even worse if we started him off in the Dauphiné Libéré. Having said that, he's been training well, doing four to five hours a day and is feeling good. He's positive and upbeat about his chances."
Apart from Rogers, George Hincapie and Thomas Lovkvist are both contenders for High Road in the opening individual time trial of 3.7 kilometres in Lloret de Mar. As for what the riders can expect in the seven-day race, Peiper points out "Catalunya this year has a very strange race route. On paper it's much tougher at the start of the course than at the finish." "There are a lot of hard mountain stages early on and then it'll be a question of controlling the race in the hillier second half."
