Looking forward to the dirt roads

“It is a very good race, it is the third time I am riding it. First time I was here in 2008, last year some sections of this race were included in Giro. The dirt roads give the race a special magic and will be included mainly in climbs. It is quite fun riding on them. We are going to use our regular bikes but we will put on wider tires that are harder to puncture. Many riders use the same tires for the Paris-Roubaix, for example,”  Roman revealed.This morning he went out for his last ride before the race at his Italian home and in the afternoon he headed south to the venue of the race. “I´ve been at Garda since Tuesday  and I had two tests on the track scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. My personal coach from the United States and a team of experts from Specialized came to see me in Italy. We focused on my aero position during the test on the track and I tested my power out on the open road. Everything came out right. From the results I could see that I had put in a really good job on the bike during the winter time,” he added.Apart from Roman, the Astana roster for the Eroica race will include: M. Iglinskiyi, Bozic, Gasparotto, Kessiakoff, Nepomnascij, Ponzi and Renev.