Barta wins Rund um Köln

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Jan Barta brought in another win for both himself and Team NetApp, winning Rund um Köln in a solo effort. The Czech rider soloed to the win 2:02 ahead of Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post-Sean Kelly) and Tomasz Marczynski of Vacansoleil.

It was the third win of the season for Barta, 27, who earlier was part of the winning team time trial squad and won the overall title in the Settimana Coppi e Bartali. The team had won the team time trial for its first win in two years at the Professional Continental level.

“I am very happy, that I finally got through with a break attempt,” Barta told Cyclingnews.  “And then to do it at such a difficult race, where the weather conditions brought everyone to the limit.”

“It was very difficult for me to win today,” he continued.  “When I attacked, I had good legs and simply took off.  I figured I had a small chance, since the rain was making it hard for all the riders.  I speculated that the chasers would not work together.  In the second lap, I was pretty near my limit, but it was clear to me that I could win the race.”

The first group got an early start on the cool, rainy Easter Monday. Only eight kilometeres into the 196.7km race, Mark Renshaw (Rabobank), Pavel Brutt (Katusha), Tom Dumoulin (Argos-Shimano), Boy van Poppel (UnitedHealthcare), Nils Plötner (Raiko Stölting) und Jasper Hamelink (Cycling Team Jo Piels) got away. They were eventually joined by Laurens ten Dam (Rabobank), David Tanner (Saxo Bank), Gatis Smukulis (Katusha), Christian Knees (German national team), Matthias Brändle (NetApp), Michael Hümbert (LKT Team Brandenburg), Johannes Kahra (Thüringer Energie Team), Ralf Matzka (Thüringer Energie Team) and Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post-Sean Kelly).

The group managed to stay away, but never had more than a two-minute lead. Eventually Brutt and Bagdonas took off, and the rest of the group was absorbed back into the field.

With 83km to go, nine more riders broke away and joined the two leaders: Wilco Keldermann (Rabobank), Tomasz Marczynski (Vacansoleil-DCM), Jan Barta (NetApp), Matthias Brändle (NetApp), William Clarke (Champion System), Tom Dumoulin (Argos-Shimano), Ivan Ronny (RusVelo), Boy van Poppel (UnitedHealthcare) and Mauritius Lammertink (Cycling Team Jo Piels).

That group was the right one, and quickly built up a lead of five and a half minutes. Barta jumped on the final ranked climb, and took off. The group behind him fell apart, and seven riders gave chase, with the field six minutes back but chasing furiously.

Barta took his lead into the three laps of the closing 6.6km circuit course in downtown Köln, and with more than a minute gap at the start of the last lap, he knew he had the win.

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