Recently on Cyclingnews.com |
 Giro finale Photo ©: Bettini |
12th Montreal World Cup - CDM
Canada, May 30, 2009
Arndt returns to racing at Montreal World Cup
By Kirsten Robbins in Montreal, Quebec
 |
Montreal, Quebec is ready to host the only women’s World Cup held in North America on Saturday May 30 for the 12th edition of the Montreal World Cup. The event will showcase twenty-two international teams vying for the prestigious win and valuable points toward the UCI Women's World Cup series ranking.
At noon, the world-class women's field will start 12 laps of a 10-kilometre circuit, totaling a 110-kilometre race of attrition. The race will start and finish on Park Avenue, at the base of the event's significant two-kilometre ascent to the top of Mont Royal.
Following the decisive climb, riders will descend through the technical twists and turns of Montreal’s city streets and around Jeanne-Mance park before their arrival back to Park Avenue. Once on Park Avenue, the race is not over, the riders will pass through a flat and fast section of the course, taking a hairpin turn into the final 400 meters to the finish line.
From the twenty-two teams, notable riders include the defending champion Judith Arndt racing for her Columbia-HighRoad squad. The German all-rounder won the previous year’s event by out-sprinting Fabiana Luperini after the duo escaped from a small but threatening front group on the last lap. A double winner, in 2006 and 2008, she returns to the peloton fully recovered from a broken collar bone and wrist suffered nearly eight months ago.
The event marks round six of a 10-event World Cup series that began in March in Italy and will end in September in Germany. Dutch powerhouse Marianne Vos (DSB Bank) currently leads the UCI scoreboard and the World Cup standings, a mere five points ahead of Sweden’s Emma Johansson (Red Sun Cycling Team) and 129 points ahead of America’s Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo TestTeam). However, neither Vos nor Armstrong will be competing in round six, leaving Johansson a full helping of World Cup points should she be victorious.
Overseas teams participating in the single-day challenge include Selle Ghezzi, Cervelo TestTeam, Columbia-HighRoad, Lotto-Belisol, Uniqa-Elk, MTN Energade, Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung, Hitec Products, ESGL93-GSD Gestion, Futuro Columbia, Swedish National Team, Australian National Team and German National Team.
North American and domestic teams include Colavita-Sutter Home, TIBCO, Webcor-Builders, Equipe Cascades-ABC Cycles, Specialized-Mazda-Samson, Equipe Quebec, Team Ultra Link, Mexican National Team and Canadian National Team.
Upon the conclusion of the World Cup, teams will continue on to compete in the 7th edition of the famed Grand Tour du Montreal. The five-day stage race takes the peloton on a journey through Montreal’s neighboring cities of Chateauguay, Granby, Lachine, Little Italy and finally, Mont-Saint-Hilaire.
