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German Championships - CN
Klingenthal, Germany, June 23-25, 2006
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Day 3 - June 25: Elite men road race, 206.5 km
Former pro Müller comes back to win German nationals
By Susan Westemeyer
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The German nationals road race came up with a surprise winner for the second year in a row, but instead of a young unknown like in 2005, this year's winner is a name out of the past - Dirk Müller. Now riding for the local club VC Frankfurt, the 32-year-old had two years in the big leagues, with Telekom in 1998 and Mapei in 1999, before dropping down to the GS-II league. He is best known for having tested positive for the pregnancy hormone HCG, for which he was suspended for six months.
On the first lap of the 29,5 km course, a six man group broke away and had a lead of up to seven minutes. However, in the third lap they were caught by the trio of Müller, Matthias Kessler and Jens Voigt, which ventually left the group behnd them. The three finally went into the last lap with a lead of over a minute. The outsider Müller took advantage of the climb to make his break, and finished about a minute before T-Mobile's Kessler. Voigt finished a few seconds later as third.
"I am totally overwhelmed," said Müller. "I thought I had an outside chance, but I never figured that I would actually win the title. When I got away with Jens Voigt in the third lap, I noted that I was doing eally well on the climb. At the end I simply had to attack. Then all I could do was give it my all - and it worked."
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Kessler said, "Dirk was the strongest today and deserved to win. After he attacked, Jens told me that he couldn't do any more. So it lay on me - and I couldn't catch him alone."
Voigt probably spoke for many when he said, "Dirk Müller is a big surprise to me. I had heard his name sometime earlier, but I didn't know that he was riding again."
He wasn't the only one surprised. Former pro Rolf Aldag did commentary on the race for German television, and before the race said, "There won't be a surprise winner this year."
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Mario Stiehl/www.world-of-cycling.com
- Dirk Müller still feeling the effort on the podium
- The men's podium (L-R) Matthias Kessler (T-Mobile), Dirk Müller (VC Frankfurt), Jens Voigt (Team CSC)
Results - 206.50 km
1 Dirk Müller (VC Frankfurt 1883) 5.05.22 (40.57 km/h) 2 Mathias Kessler (T-Mobile Team) 1.09 3 Jens Voigt (Team CSC) 1.14 4 Fabian Wegmann (Gerolsteiner) 4.43 5 Linus Gerdemann (T-Mobile Team) 6 Björn Schröder (Team Milram) 6.26 7 Andreas Schillinger (Continental Team Milram) 6.48 8 Robert Retschke (Team Wiesenhof Akud) 9 Christian Knees (Team Milram) 6.49 10 Jörg Ludewig (T-Mobile Team) 7.03 11 Erik Zabel (Team Milram) 7.07 12 Gerald Ciolek (Team Wiesenhof Akud) 13 Danilo Hondo (Team Lamonta) 14 Philipp Mamos (Heinz Von Heiden Team Hannover) 15 Patrik Sinkewitz (T-Mobile Team) 7.20 16 Uwe Hardter (Team Lamonta) 9.25 17 Stephan Schreck (T-Mobile Team) 9.50 18 Ralf Grabsch (Team Milram) 19 Rene Obst (Continental Team Milram) 10.59 20 Paul Martens (Skil-Shimano) 12.48 21 Timo Honstein (Team Sparkasse) 22 Christian Müller (Team CSC) 12.53 23 Michael Muck (German National Team) 24 Marc Weisshaupt (Elk Haus-Simplon) DNF Torsten Schmidt (Team Wiesenhof Akud) DNF Lars Wackernagel (Team Wiesenhof Akud) DNF Gregor Willwohl (Team Wiesenhof Akud) DNF Marcel Sieberg (Team Wiesenhof Akud) DNF Tim Klinger (Team Wiesenhof Akud) DNF Christian Leben (Team Wiesenhof Akud) DNF Carlo Westphal (Team Wiesenhof Akud) DNF André Korff (T-Mobile Team) DNF Olaf Pollack (T-Mobile Team) DNF Andreas Klier (T-Mobile Team) DNF Thomas Ziegler (T-Mobile Team) DNF Robert Förster (Gerolsteiner) DNF Ronny Scholz (Gerolsteiner) DNF David Kopp (Gerolsteiner) DNF Sebastian Lang (Gerolsteiner) DNF Torsten Hiekmann (Gerolsteiner) DNF Michael Rich (Gerolsteiner) DNF Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) DNF Markus Fothen (Gerolsteiner) DNF Volker Ordowski (Gerolsteiner) DNF Sven Krauss (Gerolsteiner) DNF Thomas Fothen (Gerolsteiner) DNF Matthias Russ (Gerolsteiner) DNF Enrico Poitschke (Team Milram) DNF Martin Müller (Team Milram) DNF Sebastian Siedler (Team Milram) DNF Daniel Becke (Team Milram) DNF Dennis Haueisen (Team Milram) DNF Daniel Musiol (Team Milram) DNF Wolfram Wiese (Team Regiostrom-Senges) DNF Karsten Vogel (Team Regiostrom-Senges) DNF Elnathan Heizmann (Team Regiostrom-Senges) DNF Markus Eichler (Team Regiostrom-Senges) DNF Konstantin Schubert (Team Regiostrom-Senges) DNF Rene Schild (Team Regiostrom-Senges) DNF René Lacroix (Team Regiostrom-Senges) DNF Matthias Bertling (Team Regiostrom-Senges) DNF Holger Sievers (Team Lamonta) DNF Björn Glasner (Team Lamonta) DNF Björn Papstein (Team Lamonta) DNF Steffen Weigold (Team Lamonta) DNF Christophe Von Kleinsorgen (Team Lamonta) DNF Stefan Heiny (Team Lamonta) DNF Hannes Blank (Team Lamonta) DNF Alexander Gut (Team Lamonta) DNF Matthias Friedemann (Team Lamonta) DNF Sören Hofmann (Team Lamonta) DNF Jacob Fiedler (Continental Team Milram) DNF Karsten Volkmann (Continental Team Milram) DNF Patrick Keller (Continental Team Milram) DNF Christian Kux (Continental Team Milram) DNF Sebastian Koch (Continental Team Milram) DNF Philip Patzer (Thüringer Energie Team) DNF Sebastian Schwager (Thüringer Energie Team) DNF Tony Martin (Thüringer Energie Team) DNF Nico Graf (Thüringer Energie Team) DNF Björn Gollhardt (Thüringer Energie Team) DNF Karsten Hess (Thüringer Energie Team) DNF Stefan Parinussa (Team Sparkasse) DNF Jonas Owczarek (Team Sparkasse) DNF Tilo Schüler (Team Sparkasse) DNF Sebastian Frey (Team Sparkasse) DNF Alexander Gottfried (Team Sparkasse) DNF Jördens (Heinz Von Heiden Team Hannover) DNF Hendrik Werner (Heinz Von Heiden Team Hannover) DNF Serge Herz (Heinz Von Heiden Team Hannover) DNF Gräfenstein (Heinz Von Heiden Team Hannover) DNF Domenik Klemme (Heinz Von Heiden Team Hannover) DNF Dennis Pohl (Heinz Von Heiden Team Hannover) DNF Sergej Fuchs (Heinz Von Heiden Team Hannover) DNF Udo Müller (Team Notebooksbilliger.de) DNF Philip Schulz (Team Notebooksbilliger.de) DNF Marco Kiritschenko (Team Notebooksbilliger.de) DNF Karl Schoknecht (Team Notebooksbilliger.de) DNF Philipp Walsleben (Team Notebooksbilliger.de) DNF Sebastian Prengel (Stevens Racing Team) DNF Finn Heitmann (Stevens Racing Team) DNF Christophe Meschenmoser (Skil-Shimano) DNF Fra Dressler-Lehnho (Continental Cycling Team Differdange) DNF Andreas Ortner (RC Arbö Resch & Frisch Wels) DNF Sven Teutenberg (VGB) DNF Stefan Schäfer (German National Team) DNF Simon Geschke (German National Team) DNF Mathias Belka (German National Team) DNF Philipp Seubert (German National Team) DNF Thomas Franzl (German National Team) DNF Sebastian Hans (German National Team) DNF Nico Keinath (German National Team) DNF Christoph Pfingsten (German National Team) DNF Matthias Schnapka (MNK) DNF Tobias Heimkreitner (RSV) DNF Marc Hohmann (VCF) DNF Henri Werner (LEI)
