The First Endurance sponsored HTC-Columbia team will take part in Saturday’s Milan-San Remo Classic aiming for victory for a second straight year with Mark Cavendish.  ”He’s the winner of the 2009 race and he’s our best option for winning the race in 2010,” says HTC-Columbia team manager Rolf Aldag.  ”Although I’m sure all seven team-mates are also capable of getting good results in their own right, they will do everything they can to support him.”

“After not winning a stage in the recent Tirreno-Adriatico race like Cavendish did last year,” Aldag says “it was a pity it didn’t happen but in a way it means less pressure on him. Nobody will be looking at us to chase now if there’s a breakaway of 20 riders.  We’ll keep on assessing the situation as the race unfolds. Mark’s very clever and very honest and he’ll let us know exactly what’s going on. He won’t just kill his team-mates for no reason.  We always put a lot of emphasis on communication between the riders in HTC-Columbia and it was a big part of how we won the race last year. It’ll be a big part of our game plan again this year, too.  Milan-San Remo is a very difficult race to predict, there are so many different interests at play and it’s by no means guaranteed there will be a bunch sprint. But it could happen, and the team will be working for Mark and supporting him 100 percent. There is no plan ‘B’.”

San Luis Obispo, CA, 10th November 2009 – Team Columbia-HTC has received Eurosport’s Number One Team ranking in the 2009 Classment Eurosport, and Mark Cavendish tops the ranking as the number one cyclist in 2009. With three riders in the top ten and 86 wins during 2009, Team Columbia-HTC capped the team ranking with an impressive 7,253 points, ahead of Teams Astana and Saxo Bank by greater than a 40 percent gap.

The ranking is based on more than 160 races on the UCI calendar. Points are awarded to riders in the top ten of each race, the top 20 in the major Tours, stage winners and jersey wearers. According to the point totals published on www.fr.sports.yahoo.com/cyclisme, Cavendish, as the most successful rider of the season, scored a total of 3,193 points for his 23 victories riding for Columbia-HTC.
Team Columbia-HTC riders earned three of the top-ten individual spots, and Cavendish also topped the best young rider ranking.

“What sets our team apart,” commented Columbia-HTC Directeur Sportif Rolf Aldag, “is we won races from January to October, including 17 Grand Tour stage wins, Milan-San Remo, Ghent-Wevelgem, six stage wins in the Tour of Switzerland, and seven national time trial championships titles. Together we can be proud of our results in 2009.”

First Endurance sponsored rider Mark Cavendish (Team Columbia-High Road) realised a career-long dream today, winning Milan-San Remo at the first attempt with an amazing sprint finish.  The 23 year-old from the Isle of Man was carefully protected by his team mates during the 298km race and then he beat Germany’s Heinrick Haussler in the sprint. He was so fast in the final three hundred metres that all the other sprinters were timed as finishing two seconds behind him.

Cavendish has become known as the fastest sprinter in the world while riding for Team Columbia-Highroad but is now proving that he can also be a classics rider.  “When you win sprints you prove you’re a great sprinter but when you win a great one-day race like Milan-San Remo you’ve proved you’re a great rider. I wanted to prove I’m a great rider and that’s what I did today,” Cavendish said.

Cavendish celebrated with the Team Columbia riders and staff. He gave the team’s sprint consultant and four-time Milan-San Remo winner Erik Zabel an emotional hug.  “Without his help I wouldn’t have won today,” Cavendish said of Zabel.  “We did the reconnaissance twice and I knew exactly where I had to be at what time and knew exactly how hard I could go and when. It was the knowledge that he gave me that got me through the bike race today.” 

“If the right people believe in you that’s all that matters and the team worked perfectly for me.  We had four or five guys who could have won but they sacrificed their chances so that I could win. Tommy Lovkvist could have attacked but he made sure I was second wheel on the Cipressa. Then George Hincapie guided me on the Poggio and then gave it full gas in the sprint. I knew it could work and it did. It’s a really special day for us all.”

Directeur sportif Valerio Piva and team manager Rolf Aldag were both proud of Cavendish’s performance. “Mark always said that the Cipressa and the Poggio climbs in the finale of the race would not be a problem for him but he surprised us with his great ride,” Piva said.  “Winning was a dream this morning. Now it’s become true.”

Results – 298km

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia - Highroad
2 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervélo TestTeam
3 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervélo TestTeam                      0.02