Two thirds for CSC in Germany

Not a little more than half, but two third places was the end result for Team CSC after yesterday's final stage of the Bayern Rundfahrt.

The stage from Kulmbach to Neumarkt was an exciting one, which saw Norweigan Kurt-Asle Arvesen make the decisive break of three, but only to finish third. Explained directeur sportif Kim Andersen on team-csc.com: "The riders had to climb a fairly tough hill three times, and on the last climb, [Andreas] Klöden escaped. Kurt lost the sprint for the second place to Nicolas Portal (Ag2r), while [Jakob] Piil was caught by the peloton a mere 50 metres before the finish."

However, young gun Linus Gerdemann showed plenty of guts to finish in the next group behind, and retain his third place overall. "Vinokourov tried several times to drop Michael Rich on the climb but didn't succeed. Linus was fantastic again, and at one point it was only Rich, Linus and one other rider who could keep up with Vinokourov," said Andersen.

Additional to third place overall behind Rich and Vinokourov, Gerdemann also won the best young rider's competition. In addition, CSC added the overall teams classification to their credit, along with Jens Voigt's victory in Saturday's time trial.

Said Andersen: "Even though Jens didn't manage to win the race again this year, I definitely think we have every reason to be satisfied. Especially looking towards the immediate future.

"The improvement Kurt and Jakob have shown down here is extremely promising as far as Tour de France goes. Kurt is definitely better now, than he was this time last year. And of course there is also Linus, whom I cannot praise enough for his performance for the team so far. We're really talking major talent here," he said.