Deutschland Tour - 2.2

Germany, May 31-June 6, 2004

2003 results Stage List Preview Start List Past winners

The Stages

Stage 1 - May 31: Karlsruhe - Karlsruhe ITT, 23 km
Stage 2 - June 1: Bad Urach - Wangen im Allgäu, 180 km
Stage 3 - June 2: Wangen im Allgäu - St. Anton am Arlberg, 170 km
Stage 4 - June 3: Bad Tölz - Landshut, 190 km
Stage 5 - June 4: Kelheim - Kulmbach, 192 km
Stage 6 - June 5: Kulmbach - Oberwiesenthal, 180 km
Stage 7 - June 6: Chemnitz - Leipzig, 170 km

Deutschland Tour starts in Karlsruhe

This year's Deutschland Tour (Tour of Germany) will kick off with a 23 km time trial in Karlsruhe in southwestern Germany on Monday, May 31. The week-long race will then make an anti-clockwise tour of Germany (including a short foray into Austria) before finishing in Leipzig on Sunday, June 6. Apart from the TT, key stages will be stage 3 from Wangen im Allgäu to St. Anton am Arlberg (Austria), which includes the Cat. 1 climbs of Damüls Faschinajoch (1486m) and the Arlbergpass (1793m), which comes just 7 km from the finish. The penultimate stage from Kulmbach to Oberwiesenthal on June 5 features the only real uphill finish, ending at 1214m, while the rest of the stages should be suited to the sprinters.

The Deutschland Tour will be an important test for Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile), who now has just one month to get in the right shape to win the Tour de France. On Saturday in his first race in over a month, Ullrich finished 5th in the TEAG Rund um die Hainleite, giving both he and his team confidence for July.

"I wanted to test myself, and it went well today," the 1997 Tour de France winner commented after the race. Ullrich was also happy with his recent training in the French Alps. "It went well," he said. "I'm barely overweight. I think I have enough time before the Tour."

In the Tour of Germany, Ullrich doesn't expect to win overall, but said that he wants to "...use one or two stages to find out how strong I am...The only thing for certain is that I won't finish last."

Besides Ullrich's teammate Erik Zabel, who should be up for a couple of stage wins in his own national tour, and Alexandre Vinokourov, who is a victory candidate, the field also features rising Belgian star Tom Boonen (Quick.Step-Davitamon) and his teammate Paolo Bettini. Rabobank's Oscar Freire will be there to contend for the sprints, along with riders such as Stefan van Dijk (Lotto-Domo), Danilo Hondo (Gerolsteiner), Jean-Patrick Nazon (Ag2r) and Thor Hushovd (Credit Agricole). For the GC, Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Liberty) and home boy Jens Voigt (CSC) should be among the top riders.

Start list

Quick.Step-Davitamon                  Rabobank
 
1 Paolo Bettini (Ita)                 11 Maarten Den Bakker (Ned)
2 Tom Boonen (Bel)                    12 Grischa Niermann (Ger)
3 Servais Knaven (Ned)                13 Steven De Jongh (Ned)
4 Wilfried Cretskens (Bel)            14 Robert Hunter (RSA)
5 Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel)             15 Joost Posthuma (Ned)
6 Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger)              16 Pieter Weening (Ned)
7 Luca Paolini (Ita)                  17 Roy Sentjens (Ned)
8 Stefano Zanini (Ita)                18 Thorwald Veneberg (Ned)
 
Team CSC                              T-Mobile Team
 
21 Jens Voigt (Ger)                   31 Rolf Aldag (Ger)
22 Peter Luttenberger (Aut)           32 Andreas Klier (Ger)
23 Bekim Christensen (Den)            33 Matthias Kessler (Ger)
24 Brian Vandborg (Den)               34 Andreas Klöden (Ger)
25 Kurt Asle Arvesen (Nor)            35 Tobias Steinhauser (Ger)
26 Michael Blaudzun (Den)             36 Jan Ullrich (Ger)
27 Michael Sandstod (Den)             37 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz)
28 Fabrizio Guidi (Ita)               38 Erik Zabel (Ger)
 
Lotto-Domo                            Gerolsteiner
 
41 Peter Van Petegem (Bel)            51 René Haselbacher (Aut)
42 Serge Baguet (Bel)                 52 Danilo Hondo (Ger)
43 Nico Eeckhout (Bel)                53 Sebastian Lang (Ger)
44 Stefan Van Dijck (Ned)             54 Uwe Peschel (Ger)
45 Wim Vansevenant (Bel)              55 Michael Rich (Ger)
46 Kevin Van Impe (Bel)               56 Torsten Schmidt (Ger)
47 Christophe Detilloux (Bel)         57 Ronny Scholz (Ger)
                                      58 Davide Rebellin (Ita)
 
Ag2R Prevoyance                       Illes Balears-Banesto
 
61 Laurent Brochard (Fra)             71 Daniel Becke (Ger)
62 Stéphane Berges (Fra)              72 José Vicente Garcia Acosta (Spa)
63 Christophe Agnolutto (Fra)         73 José Ivan Gutierrez Palacios (Spa)
65 Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra)           74 Denis Menchov (Rus)
66 Christophe Oriol (Fra)             75 Steffen Radochla (Ger)
67 Erki Pütsep (Est)                  76 Vicente Reynes (Spa)
68 Julien Laidoun (Fra)               77 Francisco Mancebo Perez (Spa)
                                      78 David Navas Chica (Spa)
 
Saeco                                 Credit Agricole
 
81 Danilo Di Luca (Ita)               91 Stéphane Auge (Fra)
82 Stefano Casagranda (Ita)           92 Cédric Herve (Fra)
83 Salvatore Commesso (Ita)           93 Sébastien Hinault (Fra)
84 Mirko Celestino (Ita)              94 Lilian Jegou (Fra)
85 Nicola Gavazzi (Ita)               95 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz)
86 Jörg Ludewig (Ger)                 96 Damien Nazon (Fra)
87 Evgeni Petrov (Rus)                97 Eric Leblacher (Fra)
88 Marius Sabaliauskas (Ltu)          98 Bradley Wiggins (GBr)
 
Liberty Seguros                       Bankgiroloterij
 
101 Dariusz Baranowski (Pol)          111 Lars Ytting Bak (Den)
102 Giampaolo Caruso (Ita)            112 Marco Bos (Ned)
103 Isidro Nozal Vega (Spa)           113 Frank Van Dulmen (Ned)
104 Allan Davis (Aus)                 114 Addy Engels (Ned)
105 Igor Gonzalez De Galdeano (Spa)   115 Jorgen Bo Petersen (Den)
106 Jan Hruska (Cze)                  116 Matthé Pronk (Ned)
107 Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa)       117 Alain Van Katwijk (Ned)
108 Christian Vandevelde (USA)        118 Remco van der Ven (Ned)
 
Domina Vacanze                        Team Barloworld-Androni Giocattoli
 
121 Alexandre Bazhenov (Rus)          131 Gabriele Missaglia (Ita)
122 David Clinger (USA)               132 Tiaan Kannemeyer (RSA)
123 Francesco Failli (Ita)            133 Ivan Ravaioli (Ita)
124 Massimiliano Gentili (Ita)        134 Eddy Serri (Ita)
125 Timothy Jones (Zim)               135 Andrea Moletta (Ita)
126 Sergio Marinangeli (Ita)          136 David George (RSA)
127 Murilo Fischer (Bra)              137 Enrico Degano (Ita)
128 Francesco Secchiari (Ita)         138 Ryan Cox (RSA)
 
Ed' System-ZVVZ                       Team Wiesenhof
 
141 Petr Bencik (Cze)                 151 Enrico Poitschke (Ger)
142 Lubomir Kejval (Cze)              152 Jens Heppner (Ger)
143 Jindrich Vana (Cze)               153 Ralf Grabsch (Ger)
144 Michal Precechtel (Cze)           154 Christian Knees (Ger)
145 Lubor Tesar (Cze)                 155 Lars Wackernagel (Ger)
146 Frantisek Trkal (Cze)             156 Sebastian Siedler (Ger)
147 Jan Valach (Svk)                  157 Martin Müller (Ger)
148 Pavel Zerzan (Cze)                158 Björn Schröder (Ger)

Past winners

2003 Michael Rogers (Aus) Quick Step-Davitamon
2002 Igor Gonzalez De Galdeano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski
2001 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Deutsche Telekom
2000 David Plaza Garcia (Spa) Festina
1999 Jens Heppner (Ger) Telekom

Past winners by Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com