Rapha Condor Heading for China

Tour of Qinghai Lake (China)  UCI 2.HC
By Brett Travers (www.Brett-Travers.com)

Tom Southam and many of his Rapha Condor team mates are heading off to China this week for the UCI 2.HC ranked 10-day Tour of Qinghai Lake stage race. After a successful trip to Canada recently where they had two stage wins, the British pro team now tackle a high ranking Chinese stage race.

Commenting on the trip, Tom Southam explains “we fly out to China on Tuesday and the race starts on Friday (17th) so we do not have much time to acclimatise, especially when the whole race is being held at altitude (2000m). Everyone reacts differently to altitude so it’s just a case of preparing yourself as well as possible.”

The team alongside Southam will be newly crowned British Road Race Champion Kristian House, Liam Holohan, Darren Lapthorne (stage winner in Canada), Simon Richardson, Dan Craven (the current Namibian Road Race champion) and Ben Greenwood. John Herety will manage the team.

When asked what the team’s ambitions are for the Tour, Southam responded that he thought Rapha Condor should concentrate on stage wins. “We have guys who could get in the top six but that is not really as important as winning. We are definitely capable of winning stages.”
 
Southam is a rider known for his aggressive style of riding -- does he plan to stick to what he knows best whilst racing in China? “This is an issue for me as we are going straight out to race at altitude I’m not sure how aggressive I can be. I’m quite concerned that if I try to race like I normally do, I’ll damage myself.”

“To start with, it will be a case of finding out how well I’m going. I had a little break after the National Road Race Championships because I had such a busy period between the RAS tour in Ireland in May and the Nationals. Effectively, the second part of my season starts now and I hope to be riding myself into form during the race.”

Although Southam has raced in Asia (Taiwan and Korea) a couple of times, he has never been to China. Will this provide an opportunity to soak up any of the cultural experiences that China has to offer? “Sometimes I go to races so focussed that I cannot think of anything beyond the race; other times I’ll keep half an eye open as to where I am. You always pick cultural changes up going to Asia because it is so different and you are always inadvertently looking.” 

When asked if the team has a specific leader for the race the 28-year old road man confirmed that, “Kristian’s on form and Darren’s been training at altitude at a mountain town called Livigno in Italy so he hopes to be going well. I think we will have to see how we are when we get there. The race in China starts with a prologue so we should have a good idea of how everyone is adapting and recovering.”

“If one of us is not dealing well with altitude, we will just have to put a hand up and say I’m just going to try to get through this. We have so many guys at a good level we don’t normally designate a leader.”
 
A team based approach is clearly the answer behind some important wins for Rapha Condor this year and the trip to China provides another opportunity to extend the winning run and boost their sponsor’s profile in China.