Milram for the weekend races

By Susan Westemeyer

Team Milram will be busy this weekend, with three different races in three different countries. The German ProTour team starts with Milano-Sanremo on Saturday, moves to Ronde van het Groene Hart on Sunday, and finishes with Rund um Köln on Easter Monday.

Milano-Sanremo features, as expected, the double-pronged leadership of Erik Zabel and Alessandro Petacchi. Zabel has won the race four times already, in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001, and Petacchi won it in 2005, finishing second in 2006.

The two will travel to Cologne, Germany, for Rund um Köln on Monday. Five of their team-mates there will be local riders, including Christian Knees, who took the victory in 2006.

In between, the team will send a squad to the Netherlands to the second edition of the Ronde van het Groene Hart. The squad will look to be in escape groups and count on Elia Rigotto if it comes to a mass sprint.

Milram for Milano-Sanremo: Alberto Ongarato, Alessandro Petacchi, Christian Knees, Erik Zabel, Fabio Sabatini, Marco Velo, Martin Müller and Niki Terpstra.

Milram for Ronde van het Groene Hart: Christian Kux, Elia Rigotto, Markus Eichler, Matej Jurco, Dennis Haueisen, Martin Velits, Björn Schröder and Sebastian Schwager.

Milram for Rund un Köln: Erik Zabel, Alessandro Petacchi, Christian Knees, Ralf Grabsch, Dominik Roels, Artur Gajek, Markus Eichler and Marco Velo.