Sebastian Lang (Gerolsteiner) (Image credit: Florian Schaaf)
Sebastian Lang seems to like Hessen, Germany. Two years ago he won the Hessen Rundfahrt, and this year he won it again under its new name, the 3-Länder Tour. "That was a very good stage race for me," he said. "I have showed that I am not just a good time trialist. It went very well and I didn't use up too much strength. I seem to be in form for the World Championships." Lang is to ride the world's time trial for Germany.
He thanked his team for supporting him. directeur sportif Christian Henn (who won the race in 1996) said, "Everything fit together and went well. The team did good work and Seppl took care of the win."
CSC also did exceptionally well in the race, with three stage wins, five top-four finishes, and Frank Schleck's third place overall. Two of the stage wins belonged to Karsten Kroon, who said "The 3-Länder Tour is a comeback for me." His last victory had been in 2004. "Now I have that 'winning feeling' again."
One of his teammates who would have like to have taken a stage win but couldn't was Jens Voigt, who on Sunday celebrated his 34th birthday. He was in the breakaway group with Kroon and several others at the end. But it is the end of a long season for him, and the strength just wasn't there any more, and he was being closely watched by Aivaras Baranauskas and Hannes Blank, who finished 2nd and 3rd directly ahead of him. "Of course they knew that I wanted to win," Voigt said. "You can't play those tactical games in that situation."
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