Leicester Mercury

The heat is on as Lucy starts season with Tour of Dubai

CURTAIN-RAISER IS CONTRAST TO WINTER REGIME

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THE hard winter miles are now in the tank and Lucy van der Haar is ready to launch her eighth profession­al road racing campaign, writes Paul Jones.

After battling through a wet winter schedule, the setting for her season curtain-raiser could hardly be more different as the 25-year-old, from Cosby, joins her Hitec Products team-mates at the four-day Tour of Dubai, which starts on Monday.

The double junior world champion has travelled the world as a racing cyclist and though she has tackled the Tour of Qatar in the past, Dubai is a first for the Netherland­s-based sprinter.

“From what I have heard, the first two stages are relatively flat and the second two could be quite different, with a few climbs,” she said.

Early season races can be tough to predict, with riders working towards peak form. Van der Haar believes there are opportunit­ies ahead for Hitec, who will want to put down an early marker and remind the bigger pro teams they are a force to be reckoned with.

“Me and Marta Tagliaferr­o will be the sprinters in Dubai,” van der Haar continued. “We have a new French rider, Greta Richioud, who is a good all-rounder.

“But you never know what people’s form is going to be like at the first race of the season, so it is good to start off at this kind of level instead of going straight into World Tour races.”

Wherever the season starts, van der Haar is happy with the way her winter programme has gone – as tough as it has been.

“The last two weeks ahead of this race have gone well,” she said. “It has been more about intensity than base miles.

“So I have been doing two to twoand-a-half hour rides, with quite intense blocks in them.

“Part of those rides is going to a hill and going flat out for a minute and repeat that after a quick recovery. I do that maybe 10 times.

“It is a really hard effort and you do feel different from when you come back after a four-hour ride – those

The last two weeks have been more about intensity than base miles

Lucy van der Haar, pictured

shorter efforts are suited to my abilities.”

That winter work is now about to be put to the test in Dubai before the Hitec squad, bolstered by some quality signings for 2020 including

Germany track and road internatio­nal Mieke Kroger, gets to grips with the more familiar terrain of Europe’s Spring Classic races.

■ The final round of the Leicesters­hire Cyclo-Cross League was one of numerous sporting events to fall foul of Storm Ciara.

The event, set for Marston Lodge last Sunday, was postponed by organisers well in advance of the extreme weather lashing the county.

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