Food and altitude illness impacting on Subway – Avanti cycling team at world's highest race

Food and altitude illness is having its affects on team members of The Subway – Avanti Pro Cycling Team racing in the highest cycle race in the world, in the Tour de Qinghai Lake in China.

The tour started on Friday with a criterium and includes nine stages, 1518 kilometres of racing and climbs to 3,870 metres, with the minimum of 1,880m making it the highest cycle tour event in the world. The highest point in this year’s Tour de France is at 2,115 metres over the Col du Tourmalet.

The criterium was raced in difficult wet conditions with riders constantly sprayed with a mixture of water, dirt and grime off the road resulting in limited visibility and greasy corners; there were surprisingly few crashes.

James Williamson was the best placed Subway-Avanti rider finishing 11th and Eric Drower had a mechanical incident. Other team members Joe Cooper, Sam Horgan, Nick Lovegrove, Ryan Wills and Ian Smallman all finished safely in the main field.

Saturday’s stage one was Xining to Tongren with a climb up to 3100 metres. Cooper was 87th 10 minutes and 47 seconds off the winning time. Wills and Lovegrove, both suffering the effects of food poisoning, finished outside the stage cut off time after the tough 30 kilometre category two climb took its toll on riders.

Drower was the best of the team after another very high stage two category one climb finishing 53rd, four minutes and 38 seconds behind the wining time. Cooper was 89th nine minutes behind Drower with Horgan, Smallman and Williamson close behind.

Team Co-owner Hayden Godfrey said the tour was throwing up its fair share of challenges.

“James appears to have had some intestinal problems as it is easy to have in China,” he said.

“The first stage had very wet and dirty conditions which probably didn’t help with a number of riders getting sick from most teams. It’s all part of the adventure and hopefully James will bounce back a little later in the event.”

The Tour de Qinghai Lake has attracted a very competitive international field from throughout the world. International Cycling governing body, the UCI, has graded the Qinghai Tour as UCI 2.HC, which is at the highest level, only second to Grand Tour events.

Ends

The Subway – Avanti Pro Cycling Team is New Zealand’s only UCI Continental team receiving UCI status in early 2009.
Check out Subways online TV at http://www.youtube.com/user/SubwayAvanti  

Route map http://www.tdql.cn/english/race/route/index.asp  
Race information http://www.tdql.cn/english/generalinfo/aboutrace.asp  
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For more information please contact:

Hayden Godfrey
021 464482
www.subwaycycling.co.nz

John McKenzie
enthuse ltd
021 384 730
03 384 7338
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