Columbia-HTC's Ellen Van Dijk of the Netherlands claimed first place for the second year running in the European Championship Individual Time Trial competition Wednesday.  Van Dijk completed the long, 28-kilometre course in Hooglede-Gits, Belgium with a time of 36.41 and an average speed of 45.78 kilometers per hour.   Highroad-HTC teammate Emilia Fahlin of Sweden took second, 20 seconds behind the champion.

"I am very happy, of course," said Van Dijk after the race.  After suffering a concussion from a crash in the Ronde Van Gelderland in April, Van Dijk was unable to race or train for nearly six weeks, dampening her expectations for success in the challenging ITT event.  "I was very insecure about my fitness, but it seems I was able to succeed today, even after the lost training time."

"The course was quite long, with a couple of stone sections that were also uphill, and it was very hard near the end.  The uphill was at a very important part of the course where you can easily loose a couple of seconds.  But the wind was behind me, so that was a bit of help."

Next, Van Dijk looks forward to Saturday when the team competes in the 135-kilometre European Road Championships race in starting in Oostende.  "We expect to ride very well, as we are a strong, international team of 8 girls who work really well together."

"Team Columbia-HTC" will ride the 2009 Tour de France under new
three-year sponsorship agreement
 
High Road Sports, Inc., the owner of Team Columbia-Highroad and HTC Corporation, a designer of mobile phones, today announced a three-year sponsorship agreement that prominently places the HTC brand at the starting line of the 2009 Tour de France on July 4 in Monaco.

"High Road Sports is elated to be partnering with HTC, a recognized leader and growing global brand in mobile phones," said Bob Stapleton, Owner, Team Columbia-HTC. "Team Columbia-HTC is now sponsored by two leading companies in their related industries and we are ready to show the growing power of our partnership at this year's Tour de France," he added.

The team currently called Columbia-Highroad, and known in 2008 and 2009 as the team with the most victories in professional cycling, will compete as "Team Columbia-HTC" and will present the new team uniform in Monaco on July 3, the day before the start of the 96th Tour de France.

"The HTC High Road Sports partnership is a great match of like minded organizations driven by innovation, excellence and competitiveness and we are excited about the opportunity to communicate HTC's brand value through the great sport of cycling," said Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC Corporation. "HTC's sponsorship of Team Columbia-HTC is one step in HTC's commitment to increasing its global brand value and recognition."

Recognized in Business Week's 2009 InfoTech 100 as the 13th best-performing tech company in the world, HTC focuses on putting people at the centre by making their phones work in a more simple and natural way. This drives HTC's choice of partners, product creations and platforms.  HTC's global team of designers, researchers and engineers quietly listen and observe people with their phones and in life so they can better understand and anticipate people's needs to create a more personalized experience.  This is central to HTC's culture, spanning across its more than 9,000 employees worldwide.

The three-year sponsorship agreement runs through 2011 and includes both the men's and women's professional cycling teams, which are top ranked worldwide and have won over 80 races combined in 2009 - the most wins of any competing team.

About HTC
HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry and continues to pioneer industry-leading mobile experiences through design, usability and innovation that is sparked by how the mobile phone can improve how people live and communicate. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com.

•    Team enters the race with 49 wins in 2009
•    Announces  'toughest decision' of final nine riders to compete
•    New Co-Sponsor- HTC- introduced at Tour De France

High Road Sports, Inc, which introduced a powerful new International Co-Sponsor earlier today, announces its intention to continue its winning success of the 2009 season in the Tour De France, which begins in Monaco on July 4.  The team enters the race with the most wins of the 2009 season with 49 to date, including 6 National Championship Titles.   

Team manager Rolf Aldag and owner Bob Stapleton revealed the final nine riders who will line up at the 2009 Tour de France under the newly named Team Columbia-HTC.
Aldag called it the "toughest decision of the year, as we had 15 guys who deserved to be on our Tour De France team. It was difficult to personally disappoint these fine athletes,"  Aldag added, "ultimately we succeed as a team, and we chose the combination of those athletes that give us the greatest combined opportunity for success for this course and the expected competition".

The roster for the 2009 Tour de France includes quadruple stage winner of the 2008 Tour de France Mark Cavendish (UK); 2008 yellow and green jersey holder Kim Kirchen (LUX). Road Captain George Hincapie (USA) will be lining up for his 14th consecutive year in France as well as Australian Michael Rogers who placed 8th in the recent Giro D'Italia and is a three time former World Time Trial Champion.

Young Tony Martin (GER) will make his Tour de France debut after a very successful Tour de Suisse where he won a stage and the mountains classification.  Support will come from Bernhard Eisel (AUT) who also won at stage at Tour de Suisse, promising general classification rider Maxime Monfort (BEL) , lead-out specialist Mark Renshaw (AUS) and current World Time Trial Champion Bert Grabsch (GER).


 "We're looking forward to the Grand Depart in Monaco where we will start our first race as Columbia-HTC and our new co-title sponsor HTC will be on location to witness the great spectacle of the Tour de France," added Team Owner Bob Stapleton. "We hope we can achieve the same kind of success at the Tour that we have enjoyed thus far in 2009."

Columbia-Highroad’s Linda Villumsen and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg won their respective National Road Titles this weekend in Denmark and Germany. For Villumsen is it her sixth Danish title including three Time Trial Titles but for Teutenberg it was her first ever Senior Road Title, having won multiple National Titles as a Junior.

Villumsen was relieved the race was over and that she’d managed to live up to expectation.  “The pressure was on before the race because everybody was expecting me to win so I was really nervous,” she said. “On top of that, it was super slow which increased my nerves. Two riders went away early and took seven minutes on the field.  Then we did one lap super fast and brought back the break. Trine [Hansen] and I continued to push the pace to split the field because we knew that quite a few of the young ones are quite fast in the sprint. Trine attacked and I took the risk to let her go. I gave her 20 seconds and then I bridged across. We rode the last 20km together.”

“There were two climbs in the last 20 km. On the first climb I tested her legs and saw that she was suffering a little so we rode together until the last climb with one kilomtre to go and I attacked. It was a really long sprint.  It feels good to become Danish Champion again. It gives me confidence for the Giro coming up. It is one of my big goals to be good there.”

Teutenberg was also one of the favorites on the flat course but her Columbia-Highroad team of three was clearly outnumbered.  “It was a really exciting race,” said Teutenberg afterward.  “It was aggressive from kilometre zero. For me it was really exciting to see how much [teammates] Judith [Arndt] and Luise [Keller] really did and that we were outnumbered, but they were able keep it under control so that we could win this race.  It makes it even better.”

“It went fairly perfectly for us today. We were hoping we could make it but we knew the chances were not that high.  The race was extremely fast. Nuernberg attacked from the beginning and Judith and Luise covered everything. They were both also in a couple of good breaks but none of that stuck. At one point Lui was in a break with two others and it could have been good for her, but Nuernberg wasn’t happy with it and it eventually came back.”

Teutenberg, who this season has already racked up 18 wins, join Columbia-Highroad’s nine current national champions, adding,  “It’s exciting. I’ve never been road national champion so it’s great that I’ll be able to wear the jersey for the next year.”

   

For the second year running, Columbia-Highroad’s Frantisek Rabon (Czech Republic), Kim Kirchen (Luxembourg), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway), Bert Grabsch (Germany) and Marco Pinotti (Italy) have captured their respective countries’ individual time trial titles. The same five Columbia-Highroad riders also won gold in the same event back in 2008.

In Germany, World Time Trial Champion Grabsch beat his Columbia-Highroad team-mate Tony Martin by a narrow margin of just 10 seconds over a flat 40 kilometre course which started and finished in the city of Cottbus.

“It was a big fight all the way, but Tony beat me into second in the time trial in the Bayern Rundfahrt stage race [in late May], so now it’s my turn to beat him,” Grabsch joked after taking his third German national time trial title in three years. It’s a bit like a game between the two of us, one day Tony wins, the next time it’s me.

“But I have to say the route suited me a lot -  almost flat and very straight, with just a couple of little climbs. It was also very windy, and that helped me too. I used a big gear as usual, 56x11, and I was able to get into a strong rhythm for the whole course.

“It’s good practice for the World Championships, one of my big targets for the season -  because just like the World’s, the National Time Trial is a stand-alone event. Now I’ll focus on Sunday’s road-race, and helping [Columbia-HIghroad team-mate] Andrei Greipel to win in a bunch sprint.”

Frantisek Rabon had to combat heavy rain in his successful bid for a second straight time trial title in the Czech Republic.

“It was a very difficult time trial because after a hot humid day, suddenly after half the riders had started it began pouring down with rain and the temperatures dropped by around 10 degrees. On top of that the course was very technical, with a bigger climb and then a lot of smaller ones, so you had to stay very focussed all the way through.

“I was under pressure because of last year’s win, some journalists said beforehand the race that as the big favourite, I should just get the gold medal and everybody could go home early.

"But a lot of unexpected things can happen in bike racing, and the wet weather could have changed everything. Fortunately, though, I came through for the win.”

Edvald Boasson Hagen took his third successive title in the Norwegian national time trial championships by a convincing margin of three minutes and nine seconds ahead of Kurt Asle Arvesen.

The only rider to take less than an hour for the 49.2 kilometre course in Narbo, Boasson Hagen said afterwards that “I knew I was on a good day from the moment I started. Everything felt good, the weather was great, and it wasn’t a tricky course, and that all meant I concentrated on going as fast as possible. My radio connection didn’t work well, and I just went all out and hoped for the best.

“The Norwegian National time trials are always held on courses about 50 kilometres long, and I’d recently done an even longer distance in the Tour of Italy’s big time trial, so I knew how to calcualate my strength.”

Already the winner of the Ghent-Wevelgem Classic and a stage of the Tour of Italy, the 22-year-old recognised, “It’s all working out really well for me this season. Now I’ll take part in the road-race [on Sunday] and see what I can do there, too!”