Milram send sprinters to Portugal

Team Milram sends a team built around its young sprint star, Gerald Ciolek, to the Volta ao Algarve (February 18-22). Sprinters are looking forward to the parcours made for bunch sprints. This year the five stages, including an individual time trial of 33.7 kilometres, covers a total of 735 kilometres through southwestern Europe.

"This is a stage race made for the fast racers," said captain Ciolek. "We are going to the race with a strong team aimed at the sprint finishes. The Mallorca Challenge was a good opener for the season, for us to get the team feeling back again after the long break. When we can work together here in Portugal as well as we did there in Spain, then we will surely play a role in the race."

Ciolek will have support from Robert Förster, who can also go for the stage wins himself, depending on the race situation. "I think that Qatar was a good race for me," said Förster, who last year won two stages in Algarve and finished second in another stage. "I could see how I was doing. I hope that we can keep on improving in Portugal. I am looking forward to Algarve."

The Milram team for the Volta ao Algarve: Gerald Ciolek, Robert Förster, Markus Fothen, Thomas Fothen, Artur Gajek, Björn Schröder, Niki Terpstra and Peter Wrolich. Directeur Sportif is Christian Henn.