On paper the Dauphine is a tough race to read. In a somewhat unusual parcours, the Dauphine will have decisive stages all the way to the final climb of the final stage to La Toussuire. The first uphill finish comes on stage two, and looks like it will be a tough climb, even though it only gains around 1500 feet over 8-10k.

Perhaps the most interesting day to watch Tour contenders comes shortly after on stage 3. Everyone in the race who has aspirations of winning the Tour de France overall, will want to have a great showing on stage 3 in Grenoble.

After a sprint stage 4, and a mid-mountain day on stage 5, the Dauphine will face it’s toughest climb on stage 6 to Collet d’Allevard. Stage 6 is the final day where overall contenders in the Dauphine have a super tough finish to reinforce their lead, or try to take over the lead. The stage 6 finish will certainly be fun to watch!

The first week of the Giro will present some great opportunities for Team Garmin-Cervélo to look for stage wins prior to fighting for the overall classification in the high mountains of week two and three.

Starting with the opening team time trial, we’ll look to repeat the success we had at the 2008 Giro. In 2008 our team won the team time trial, putting Christian Vande Velde into the maglia rosa for a day. Our team time trial squad will be anchored by veteran David Millar who has been on great form recently, and should provide plenty of horsepower to contend for the win in the TTT.

Profile, Team Time Trial:

Stage 2 presents a rare opportunity for the sprinters in this years Giro. While there’s no guarantee it will end in a sprint, most sprinters looking for stage wins on the flatter stages will have their team’s work to make sure a breakaway doesn’t stay clear of the main field. Tyler Farrar should have a great chance to win stage 2.

Tyler will have some fast lead out men with the support of Murilo Fisher, Brett Lancaster, and track star Cameron Meyer.

Stages 3- 6 are very tough to predict. On paper, you could call them sprint stages, but it’s hard to know what the final 20-30 kilometers look like without knowing the course very intimately. All 4 stages present great opportunities for attacking riders to get away late in the stage.

Garmin-Cervélo will look to a rider like Tom Peterson to go out on the attack during one of these stages to see if he can capitalize on the great form he has shown in the past few weeks.

Tirreno-Adriatico is a seven stage race that crosses central Italy from coast to coast, often called the race of two seas. It’s often overshadowed by Paris-Nice, but is usually a hard fought battle for both GC contenders and stage win hopefuls. In 2010 the overall victory was decided with a tie-breaker on the final stage, and 10 riders were within 1 minute of the overall victory!

In 2011, Team Garmin-Cervélo will be looking for a fast start in the 16.8 km team time trial. The profile for the TTT is pan-flat so look for the winners time to be close to 17 minutes even (that is 60 km/h for those of you keeping track!)

After the team time trial the race has two flat stages for the sprinters before transitioning into hillier, more decisive stages for the overall GC contenders. Stages 4, 5, and 6 all have lumpy course profiles and should favor the climbers. Stage 6 may be the decisive stage for the overall GC with a steep uphill finish in Macerata.

Just take a look at our Schedule…it’s loaded! There are some fantastic stage races to look forward to in March: Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Vuelta Murcia (starting today!), among others.

Having said that, we get the most excited for the big one day classics.

The first big race of the spring is Eroica Montepaschi Strade Bianche on the white dirt roads of Tuscany. Eroica is a relatively new race on the pro calendar, but what it lacks in history is easily over come by the exciting racing it always produces.

Our 2011 Eroica start list includes: Tyler Farrar, Roger Hammond, Ryder Hesjedal, Brett Lancaster, Travis Meyer, Ramunas Navardauskas, Matt Wilson and Tom Peterson.

This year our squad heads into Eroica poised improve upon some great results in previous years:

2008: Maaskant 4th, Hesjedal 10th
2009: Hesjedal 10th, Hammond 14th (CTT)
2010: Hesjedal 5th

“It’s amazing to have won again,” Farrar told Cyclingnews.

“It always takes a lot of luck to win a one-day race like Vattenfall. To have that luck for two years in a row it’s nice for me. I love this race. It’s kind of the perfect for me, for my characteristics.”

“I had a rough month with injuries at the Tour de France because I broke my wrist. To come back and win again makes me feel like things are on the right track. I’ll ride a few more one-days and then the Vuelta and the world championships. They’re the important ones for me,” he said.

“It was a long, hot day,” said Martijn Maaskant who drove the early part of the lead-out.

“I tried to help the guys with the lead-out. I got on the front at 3k to go, which was probably too far out. It seemed like Julian, Robbie and Tyler were in a good position, but Julian and Tyler are still coming back from injuries.”

“We’re going to keep trying – we’re working well and one of these days at the Tour, I think its all going to come together.”

“The boys rode great today,” said director sportif Matt White.

“We’re continuing to look at our options in the sprints, since Tyler is far from 100 percent yet and Julian’s still fighting his injuries, too. The lead out worked great with what we’ve got at the moment, the guys just didn’t have the finish in them.”

“We’ll keep trying — as we’ve said from day one, we’re here to race.”