San Luis Obispo, CA – 23rd April 2010 – In top condition for the first time this season, HTC-Columbia’s Tony Martin will be on the hunt for an impressive result in Sunday’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege. “Tony’s had a difficult start to the season with a knee injury that’s kept him out of the running, but he’s finally come through and should be able to do a good ride on Sunday,” comments HTC-Columbia’s sports director, Valerio Piva.

“He did well in Fleche Wallone, going on the attack on the second last climb, and in Liege we’ll try a similar tactic of playing our cards before the top favourites make their moves. Apart from Tony, Maxime Monfort’s always motivated for this race, which is his home event, and Michael Albasini and Peter Velits are in good shape as well.”

The Liege-Bastogne-Liege route has seen some big changes this year, with the Haut Levée climb no longer a part of the course. “Removing the Haut Levée will make it more difficult for a group to get away before La Redoute, which remains the most important climb of the race. Staying in front for that part of the race will become even more important. We’re expecting very warm weather for Sunday, and the heat could cause serious problems for the riders in the last part of the course if they don’t remember to keep eating and drinking to keep their strength up. That could be another important factor and it will probably make the race much more unpredictable and harder to control. As for HTC-Columbia, we’ll be ready to grab every opportunity we can to give our opponents a hard time.”

HTC-Columbia for Liege-Bastogne-Liege: Michael Albasini (Swi); Tejay Van Garderen (USA); Rasmus Guldhammer (Den); Craig Lewis (USA); Tony Martin (Ger); Maxime Monfort (Bel); Martin Velits (Svk); Peter Velits (Svk).