No "three-peat" for Voigt?

Jens Voigt of Team CSC doesn't think that he will win the Deutschland Tour for the third time in a row. The race starts on August 31 in Austria, before heading to Germany and finishing on September 6 in Bremen. "I would be amazed if I can be near the lead in the Deutschland Tour, even if I would of course like to be mistaken about that."

The 36 year-old, currently in Beijing for the Olympics, told dpa, "my preparation will be all other than optimal: After my return from Beijing on August 15 I will make a few days vacation with my family on the Baltic Sea and ride a small race in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany."

Voigt has already ridden both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France this year. In the Olympic road race on Saturday, he was in a leading group for a long time before eventually dropping out. He is the replacement rider for the German time trial team.

The German cycling federation recently announced that Voigt had told them that he would not ride the Worlds this year, but, as he told the dpa, "I said that last year, too and then rode anyway. I'll see how I feel." (SW