By Susan Westemeyer
Olaf Pollack calls himself "the most underestimated sprinter in Germany." He never dreamed that T-Mobile would not renew his contract for this season, and that he would be riding for Continental Professional Team Wiesenhof-Felt instead. "That was a step back," he told the Esslinger Zeitung.
"I never thought that they would let me go," he said bitterly. "At the beginning of the year I brought in the first wins, so that the team could be happy. That performance was not honoured." Pollack won the last two stages in the 2006 Tour of California.
"Sometimes I just lacked that last bit of luck," the 33 year-old noted. "Maybe I was in the wrong place at the wrong time too often." Pollack rode as second sprinter behind Danilo Hondo at Gerolsteiner before transferring to T-Mobile, where he rode his first season as second sprinter behind Erik Zabel, for whom he had no good words. "Erik only took, he never gave," according to Pollack, before concluding, "I have to be satisfied with it the way it was."
