San Luis Obispo, California, 18th August 2011 – The HTC-Highroad men’s squad is replete with sprint power for the Vuelta on Saturday. With Mark Cavendish and Leigh Howard among others, spirits are high and motivation is strong for the team to finish their final Grand Tour with success.

“It’s not easy for us to think of this as the last Grand Tour for the team, given it’s our history,” Says sport director, Jens Zemke, “But all of us, riders and staff are professionals and we have kept the motivation high.”

“We have a lot of sprinters in our line-up so we’ll be going for stage wins over the GC, but if any of our guys wind up with a good position we’ll support him.”

“We want a good result in the team time trial tomorrow. It’s thirteen and a half kilometers long and the guys are in good form so we’re confident to make a good result there.”

The team has also enlisted HTC-Highroad’s technical developer, Lars Teutenberg for his time trail expertise to make sure that the fleet is in absolute perfect condition for the opening team time trail on Saturday.

HTC-Highroad for the Vuelta a España: Michael Albasini (Swi) Mark Cavendish (GB) John Degenkolb (Ger) Matthew Goss (Aus) Bert Grabsch (Ger) Leigh Howard (Aus) Tony Martin (Ger) Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Byl) Martin Velits (Slv)