Focus & Team Milram: Gerald Ciolek third in Hamburg.
MILRAM’s Gerald Ciolek third in Hamburg
Hamburg: 16/08/2009
MILRAM’s Gerald Ciolek sprinted to third place in the 14th edition of the Vattenfall Cyclassics (UCI Category ProTour). After 216 kilometers with start and finish in Hamburg, he finished behind Tyler Farrar of Team Garmin-Slipstream and Dane Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank) in the mass sprint. His MILRAM teammates had done a lot of hard work to set things up and bring their sprinter into a good position.
“That is a very good success for our Team MILRAM”
Said Gerald Ciolek after the honors ceremony.
“On one hand, of course, there were two riders faster than me. But on the other hand, it not really a loss. That was my only my second race since the Tour de France. At times it was very difficult for me to go with the high tempo in the finale.”
It was the second podium place for him in the German ProTour race, after finishing third in 2007. MILRAM Team Manager Gerry van Gerwen was satisfied:
“Of course we would liked to have won here in the home area of our main sponsor. Our young team put in a super performance in this top classic and with the third place brought in an outstanding result. Our sport director Christian Henn worked the guys out tactically perfectly. The manner in which this success came to be gives us hope for the immediate future.”
Two riders marked much of the race. Spaniard Sergio de Lis of Team Euskaltel and Ukranian Yuriy Kirvtsov of Ag2r were one of the first attacks of the day. While the duo built up a lead of up to nine minutes, Team MILRAM and Team Columbia-HTC controlled the peloton. At the first crossing of the finish line in downtown Hamburg about 60km before the finale, the escapee’s gap had shrunk to about two minutes. After 170 kilometers in a break, the Spanish-Ukranian pair was caught and the teams with the favourites opened up the exciting finale.
Result:
1 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Slipstream 5:30:38
2 Matti Breschel (Den) Saxo Bank
3 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team MILRAM
4 Allan Davis (AUS) Quick Step
5 Koldo Fernandez (ESP) Euskaltel
6 Davide Vigano (ITA) Fuji
7 Daniele Bennati (ITA) Liquigas
8 Fabio Sabatini (ITA) Liquigas
9 Marco Bandiera (ITA) Lampre
10 Jacopo Guarnieri (ITA) Liquigas
…
67 Niki Terpstra (NED) Team MILRAM
72 Peter Wrolich (AUT) Team MILRAM + 42
73 Christian Knees (GER) Team MILRAM + 46
81 Johannes Fröhlinger (GER) Team MILRAM + 1:09
103 Martin Velits (SVK) Team MILRAM + 2:52
113 Markus Fothen (GER) Team MILRAM
The MILRAM line-up:
Gerald Ciolek (GER / Ermatingen,SUI), Markus Fothen (GER / Kaarst), Johannes Fröhlinger (GER / Freiburg im Breisgau), Christian Knees (GER / Euskirchen), Niki Terpstra (NED / Haarlem), Martin Velits (SVK / Riemst,BEL), Paul Voß (GER / Bielefeld), Peter Wrolich (AUT / Klagenfurt)
Directeur Sportif:
Christian Henn (GER)