Zabel to be sport director for Vattenfall Cyclassics

Erik Zabel has been named sport director of the Vattenfall Cyclassics, Germany's only WorldTour race. The announcement was made Wednesday afternoon.

He will become the assistant to long-time race director Roland Höfer, and is expected to be his successor in due time.

“I am looking forward to being allowed to grow into this new assignment,” Zabel told the SID news agency.

This year's race is scheduled to be held August 21 in the Hanseatic City of Hamburg. The 2010 race, like that in 2009, was won by Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Transitions.

Zabel won the race only once, in 2001. The now 40-year-old rode for Deutsche Telekom from 1993 to 2005 before ending his career with Team Milram in 2008. He had over 200 wins in his career, including six green jerseys and 12 stages of the Tour de France. The German also won Milan-San Remo four times.

Most recently he has been a coach at Team HTC-Highroad, working with sprinter Mark Cavendish.