For the first time since 2014, Lauren Kitchen will have a fellow Australian for a teammate. Judging from how Kitchen and FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope teammate Shara Gillow raced the Australian national titles, the duo is set for a successful 2018 season. Kitchen took silver in the road race while Gillow claimed a medal in the time trial for the eighth straight year.
Although FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope won't be racing the Australian summer calendar, the team have given Kitchen and Gillow the opportunity to race on home soil with the national team at this week's Santos Women's Tour.
Both riders are aiming to hit peak form in the European spring, with Kitchen targeting the cobbles and Gillow the hillier Ardennes. While Kitchen would never pass up the opportunity to take a win, particularly in Australia, the early season racing is about building a platform of success between March and April.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The spring Classics are my big focus for the year and I hope that this also helps me make the Commonwealth Games team," said Kitchen, who has three Worlds appearance to her name. "I think that I can definitely be a big factor in that race. Whether that is helping Kat [Garfoot] or being a factor myself. I have a bit of a sprint and I think with the field that we have there and dynamics of that course, we can have a really strong team there and I hope to be there."
Speaking after her silver-medal performance and day in the breakaway at the nationals, Kitchen further outlined her season aims, explaining how to balance the classics campaign of northern Europe and the Commonwealth Games road race on Australia's gold coast in April.
"For me, the Ardennes will be hard to miss but my focus this year will be the cobbled classics. We have a strong sprinter in our team and I will be helping her in the early season spring classics and then the Flanders classics are more suited to myself, with Shara focusing on the harder classics like Strade Bianche and possibly the Ardennes," she said.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2CP5PbV
No comments:
Post a Comment