T-Mobile Team is lucky enough to have the top two young sprinters in its ranks: 20 year-old Gerald Ciolek and 22 year-old Mark Cavendish. Both youngsters have seven season victories, giving the pair over half of the team's total of 26 season wins. But Sport Director Rolf Aldag isn't worried about rivalry between the two, and he sees them developing in different directions.
In an interview on t-mobile-team.com, he noted that Cavendish "is a classical sprinter, the kind of rider who can make his way alone through the field and can take the win. But when his form isn't right, then he won't even make it over the smallest hill. But that's OK, he is a sprinter and should remain one, and not lose his speed."
Ciolek, on the other hand, "is also very fast, but he is the better all-rounder. He can handle climbs of three or four kilometres. We saw that in the [Tour of Austria] stage to Sonthofen with the 1400-metre high Riedbergpass, where all the sprinters other than him and Zabel got hung up. He is the type of sprinter who has the potential to win a Classic."
Aldag further notes that there is another powerful young sprinter on the squad, André Greipel. The 25 year-old has only two wins this season, the first two stages of the Sachsen Rundfahrt, but, according to Aldag, "he is unbelievably fast and also has the class to do great things. He sacrificed his own opportunities in the Deutschland Tour to work for Ciolek. I know that he has a lot of plans for the rest of the season," including, he hopes, a stage win the Vuelta a España."
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
