Gerolsteiner joys and woes and rumours

Gerolsteiner had yet another "good news, bad news" sort of day on Wednesday. The good news was René Haselbacher's second place finish in the Volta a Catalunya. "Too bad, it was really close," said the Austrian, and directeur sportif Reimund Dietzen said, "If it had been another few meters, then René would have passed Hushovd." The bad news was Markus Fothen's crash about 10 km before the finish, just as the breakaway group was overtaken by the peloton. Fothen made it to the finish not quite two minutes behind the speedy sprinters.

Meanwhile, back in Germany, rumours spread that Gerolsteiner was looking to sign T-Mobile's Andreas Klöden. "If Ullrich rides again next year and Klöden wants to be captain, then we would have to have a serious discussion," Team manager Hans-Micheal Holczer was quoted as saying in Sport Bild. "He's not getting any younger, so it's normal that he would look around. And to say that I wouldn't have any interest, would be a lie."

Team Spokesman Mathias Weiland denied that a signature was imminent. "Whenever the contract of a German rider expires, our name is automatically mentioned," he said. Holczer was asked in an interview with Sport Bild about Klöden "and he answered truthfully - and absolutely theoretically. There's nothing to it."