Cervelo TestTeam makes it three in a row

The Cervélo TestTeam successfully defended its title riding to another win today at the team time trial at the World Cup in Vårgårda, Sweden. The squad won by 1:08 over HTC Columbia Women's team and by 2:25 over Nederland Bloeit.

The win was all the more remarkable as the squad lacked now-retired Olympic champion Kristin Armstrong, but Charlotte Becker, Regina Bruins, Iris Slappendel and Kirsten Wild showed that the team was more important than any single rider.

"We all rode the same pace today, and that was the key to our success," said Bruins, who was also part of the winning team last year. "Everybody did the right job, and I am really proud we won again."

"It was a very successful time trial for us," said Egon van Kessel, Sports Director. "We trained a few times on the course when the weather was really good. But today it changed to rain and wind. This year's team was very strong technically, and I am very proud of them." Van Kessel said the team rode more strongly this year than last year.

The HTC-Columbia squad fielded an experienced and talented team with Judith Arndt , Linda Melanie Villumsen , Eleonora Van Dijk and Adrie Visser, but could only manage second place, dropping the squad out of the top spot in the World Cup standings behind Cervelo.

"I expected a battle especialy between Cervelo and us," said HTC-Columbia director Ronny Lauke. "They have won it the previous years, my pre-race impression has been that we a have a team that can win it against any other team. The time gap is of course disappointing."

"According to Rene Wenzel our director in Sweden, a few riders have not had a good day, struggled to find a good rhythm at the beginning, where we lost the most time.

"For the future and especially with the background that there will be a team time trial world championship again, we will have to focus more on special TTT training camp and additional sessions for this."

The third place of individual World Cup leader Marianne Vos' Nederlands Bloeit squad helped extend her lead in the standings. Liesbet De Vocht, Loes Gunnewijk and Annemiek Van Vleuten helped pull out ten more points over Red Sun's Emma Johansson, who's team only managed seventh.

Cervelo's Becker leapt over Belgian Grace Verbeke (Lotto) and Johansson and now sits 70 points behind Vos in the individual standings going into Sunday's round.

"Now we go on to the road race on Sunday," said von Kessel. "We know the course it is more or less the same as today's course. It is not really that hard, but it will be exciting. Kirsten Wild is in a good shape, so we will go for the victory again, which I expect will come from a group sprint by a select group."

Full Results

World Cup rankings as of June 30, 2010