Klöden bemoans state of German cycling

Andreas Klöden vehemently criticised the German cycling federation (BDR) on his Twitter account on Thursday. The German RadioShack rider, who lives in Switzerland, has never made his opinion of the heads of the BDR a secret, and has now leashed out against them once again.

The reason for his tirade was the news that Germany will probably have to line up with only five riders at the World Championships because it currently sits in 12th place on the UCI nation rankings. He advised his fellow German riders to stop "arguing on the internet" on who should be selected into the Worlds roster but instead concentrate on getting more ProTour points in order to make it into the top ten.

"The German Cycling Federation is an amateur! No nomination criteria, no professional guidance. No one has any idea of professional cycling," he tweeted just a few minutes later. "Only when the gentlemen retire, it will be better."

He pointed to "people like Rudolf Scharping, Udo Sprenger or Burkard Bremer" as the main culprits of the situation, and spoke out in favour of former professional Marcel Wüst to be involved in the decision-making at the BDR in the future. According to Klöden, Wüst has "intelligence and competence".

The nation's lack of competitive ProTour riders, according to Klöden, was only made worse when Heinrich Haussler decided to race for his home country of Australia instead of Germany, where he has resided since age 14.

"The best German classics rider now rides for Australia. He had a lot of Pro Tour points last year. And he is the future. Why he went?" asked Klöden, before answering the question himself: "I love Australia and what Heinrich has done, was the only right way. He is to work with professionals and not amateurs."

The RadioShack rider, who has stopped talking to German-speaking media in the aftermath of the Operación Puerto affair and in 2008 refused to line up on the national team, added that he was "never angry with Germany. But with the German cycling federation with their incompetent people. Germany has wonderful fans."