Hello to you VeloVeritas readers! Thanks for checking out my Adam Hansen Blog – I’ll be updating it with news, what I’m up to, and where I’m doing it throughout the season, writes Adam Hansen.
First thing to tell you is that I met up my new Omega-Pharma Lotto teammates for the first time here in Australia, for the Tour Down Under.
We received lots of nice things from the team and our sponsors: Nike gear, Rudy Project glasses for racing in and for casual use, and loads team kit for racing and training – all nice.
I also got my new Canyon race bike – it’s superb, we’re all very impressed by it – and with the wheels too; Mavic have been really good to us. We went for a nice five hour ride the other day on our new bikes and I was surprised how different it is to the older model I’ve been training on. Super nice. Better than my legs from the Aussie Nationals at any rate, which were still a tad sore!
It’s a good team we’ve got here, particularly for the sprints. We’ve got guys that fill every need, so we should be able to give all the races a good go.
It will: be very interesting this year, and everyone is excited to see what will happen – Andre is super fit and looking really good, but that is not something new, he always looks good and rides well this time of the year.
We rode a crit the other night, which was a bit of a battle, the teams up front all the time were HTC, us and a bit of Sky throughout the race.
It was mighty strange seeing Rogers, Hendo from Sky and then the HTC boys all there.
It was like we were one big team wearing different jerseys.
Before the race we were all friendly with each other, also after too, but it felt like things stopped there. In the race it was for sure different.
Normally letting guys in the line would always happened but neither team would step down.
I must admit, it was kinda strange to go against HTC. I know those guys so well, how they ride. Some moments things got a bit not so friendly but that’s how it is. I even commented to Renshaw in the race that we are all friends, aren’t we? He took it well.
As a team we are happy. It was the first race and we rode well. We stood our ground and went for it. Shame about the crash but that happens, and things will be different when the Tour starts.
The competition in the sprints (and elsewhere) will create a super exciting year ahead.
I don’t believe there will be one dominant team, the results will always change depending on position, crashes and who is in form.
Here in my team, we’re all looking forward to the challenge. We love that sh*t 🙂
