Bayern Rundfahrt announces final ten teams

Five Professional Continental and five Continental teams round out the field for this year's Bayern Rundfahrt, taking place from May 22-27. At least three of the Professional Continental teams are still in the running for a start in the Tour de France, the race organisers pointed out. 

The Professional Continental teams are Team NetApp, Topsport-Vlaanderen-Mercator, Saur-Sojasun, Europcar, and Project 1t4i.  The five Continental teams are all from Germany:  Eddy Merckx Indeland, Heizomat, NSP-Ghost, Thüringer Energie and Nutrixxion-Abus.

These ten squads will join nine previously announced WorldTour teams: Euskaltel-Euskadi, FDJ Big Mat, Garmin-Barracuda, RadioShack-Nissan, GreenEdge, Katusha, Lampre-ISD, Sky and Saxo Bank.

“We are staying true to our principles of having the absolute world's best at the start, but also giving young German riders a chance,” said race head Ewald Strohmeier. “This mixture promises a race that we can look forward to.”

The race's new sport director, Helmut Bölts, who won stages at the event in 1993 and 1994, agreed. “We shouldn't underestimate the smaller outfits. The Continental teams come with their best riders and will do everything to make lift tough for the top stars. For most of them, the Bayern Rundfahrt is the absolute season highlight.”

The teams have not yet announced who will ride, but the race is hoping for such riders as Germans Marcel Kittel, John Degenkolb and Roger Kluge from Project 1t4i, or Thomas Voeckler from Europcar.