German Bundesliga race held in snowstorm

The professionals stayed in the comfort of their hotel rooms as Rund um Köln got cancelled, but further north the racing was on. Cottbus-Görlitz-Cottbus was held, despite the conditions being pretty bad, too. The directeur sportif of Thüringer Energie Team, Jens Lang, explained that "The conditions were borderline. Partially, there was snow slush on the road." He joked that "Fortunately, we come from a winter sports country and regularly go skiing in our training camps," making reference to Thüringen as the home of many high-level cross-country skiers, biathletes and ski-jumpers.

But Thüringer Energie Team was happy overall, as they got off to a good start into the racing season. The defending Bundesliga champion won the teams classification for the day and took over the lead again in the standings. The race, which was shortened from 190 to 140 kilometres due to the ice and snow, was dominated by an 11-man breakaway. It developed quickly after the start and rode ahead of the peloton with a maximum advantage of over four minutes. By the end the field came close, but was still 29 seconds back at the finish.

Felix Rehberger of Team Bergstraße won the event, ahead of Marcel Barth (Thüringer Energie). Matthias Belka (LKT Brandenburg) was the one who started the sprint and managed to get third.

One more rider of Thüringer Energie was in the break, with Lucas Schädlich taking fifth. Philipp Klein won the sprint of the peloton and his 12th place got Thüringer Energie the teams classification. Lang explained that "we were always well informed, had two fast men in the break and our sprinters in the peloton," emphasising his previous point that the ban of the race radio for the under 23 races won't change the tactics.

Erik Mohs (Milram Continental) snatched seventh place, while his team-mate, Jacob Fiedler, was also in the break and finished 11th. Directrice sportive Sylvia Hauseisen was slightly dissatisfied, saying that "Too bad it didn't work out. Jacob led out Erik for the sprint, but it didn't quite work out." Milram Continental had five riders in the top 20 and finished fifth in the teams classification.