Wouter Wippert, who joined Cannondale this winter, will be present at the start of the Tour Down Under. Last year, the Dutch rider won the last stage with Drapac Pro Cycling ahead of Heinrich Haussler. Interviewed by Cyclingnews, he explained why he chose to sign with the US team.
"One the requests when I signed with the team was can I please start with the team at Down Under again. I like training but I am pro cyclist because I like racing more so I am happy to start in Down Under and start the season early," Wippert told. "Compared to last year, the week before Tour Down Under I am three kilos lighter so it's going to be a bit easier I guess. Training has gone really well the last couple of weeks so I think I am ready and everything should be a bit better than last year and hopefully the result as well."
He has studied the route for the Australian race. He hopes to have good legs on the final stages. "The main goal is going to be stage one, four and six. In normal circumstances they will finish in a bunch sprint but you never know of course. It would be really good, not just for me but for the team as well to start well and get some rest for the remainder of the week. We are going to try our best the first day.
"We'll fine-tune everything a little bit more, then it should be all right for next week. It's going to be hard because it's going to be the first race all together and we all are pretty young so probably we’ll miss out one day, because we go wrong or something else, but I am pretty sure its going to work out soon."
There will be a lot of contenders for the sprint. "Of course Ewan, not even because he was good in the last couple of weeks but it's his home country and the team's, so the pressure is going to be on for GreenEdge and everyone knows that. I don't think they have any problems handling that with a team like that. There are some other guys like Nathan Haas who was pretty good at the nationals and he'll be motivated. [Matteo] Pelucchi, [Giacomo] Nizzolo … there are a couple guys and it won't be easy but it's always possible to do the difficult."
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