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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
While she's carrying a few minor battle scars into the London Olympics, Yellowknife's Denise Ramsden says she's ready to race on Sunday.

Yellowknife cyclist Denise Ramsden will compete this Sunday in a 140-km road race at the 2012 London Olympics. - photo courtesy of Malcolm Eade

"I'm feeling really good," Ramsden said by phone from London yesterday.

"I crashed in my last stage of a race in Germany last week, but it was fine. Just a little road rash," said the 21-year-old cyclist, laughing.

Ramsden and her teammates, Clara Hughes and Joelle Numainville, were using the German stage race as preparation for the London Games, and Ramsden said the trio were feeling very strong.

"Germany was really good. We didn't end up finishing the whole thing, because we wanted to stay rested for London. Clara dropped out about half way through, and Joelle a day after. I rode until the second last day, and I had a really good time trial, which felt good," Ramsden said.

Since arriving in London, however, the time trial and German roads are all but forgotten.

The focus now, she said, is the race course at London's Box Hill and developing a team strategy.

"We've already been out on the circuit. We haven't ridden the whole thing, because we start and end at Buckingham Palace, which is closed off right now, but we've been focusing on the loop at Box Hill," she said.

That loop, which the women will race twice during the 140-km road race on Sunday, is the most critical section of race course, Ramsden explained.

"It's a pretty tough course. It's a lot like the early-season classics that we do, like Flanders. There aren't any cobblestones, but the roads are pretty bumpy. It's not very fast pavement, and the climb is pretty solid. It's not steep, but it keeps going. I think it's going to take a toll on everyone's legs," Ramsden said.

While she wouldn't give away any specifics about team strategy for the race, she did acknowledge that breakaways are likely and the women are working on a strategy to deal with them.

"Usually, in a breakaway, people are only worried about winning, so if you find yourself in one and think, 'oh, I maybe can't win this,' riders usually won't work together. But at the Olympics, people would still be pretty stoked with a silver or bronze medal. It might mean that there are successful breakaways even though the composition wouldn't normally work," she said.

As they prepare, Ramsden said the team is staying away from the Athletes Village so it can focus on the races.

"Even though we're pretty far out of the city, there are tons of people out riding on the circuit. Everyone seems pretty excited," she said.

One of those people is Canadian men's racer Ryder Hesjedal, who has been doing some training with the women's team, Ramsden said.

"His bike has all these little pink highlights from the Giro D'Italia (which Hesjedal won earlier this summer, the first time a Canadian had ever won the vaunted pink jersey).

"Out on the climbs with him, it's like 'Wow, OK. This is why he won.' It's incredible to have people like him and Clara here with us."

The Sunday racing event will be broadcast on CTV at 7 a.m. local time.

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