Niermann ready to help

Grischa Niermann is ready to help his Rabobank teammates in the upcoming Tour de France. In an interview with radsport-aktiv, the German said that after his injury-plagued spring, he is getting in form and his preparation with the Volta a Catalunya, the Dauphiné Libéré and some altitude training in Livigno/Italy has gotten him ready to tackle the three-week race in France

His own ambitions have to stay behind, but for him, "being part of the Tour team with people like Rasmussen, Menchov, Freire and Dekker is a tremendous success."

He'll put himself to the team's service for contesting the White jersey with Thomas Dekker, the Green jersey for Oscar Freire, the Polka Dot (Michael Rasmussen) and the Yellow jersey (Denis Menchov). "But if in the end, we only get one out of the four it still will be a success."

His favourites are quite many. Not surprisingly he names teammate Menchov, along with the Astana trio of Alexander Vinokourov, Andrey Kashechkin and Andreas Klöden. But he also gives chances to American Levi Leipheimer and Spaniards Carlos Sastre and Alejandro Valverde. His big hope is for a scandal-free Tour de France that's full of suspense.