International Hessen Rundfahrt, Cat 2.5

Main Page Stage 6 - Allendorf (Eder) - Wiesbaden, 162.5 kms Report: The final stage of the International Hessen Rundfahrt was no easy run in for German Jens Zemke, overall winner of the event. Coming into the stage, the Nürnburger held a slender seven-second gap to the Russian Edouard Gritsoun, who has been running in second place for much of the tour. Zemke had obtained the yellow jersey from Dane, Allan Johansen after the individual 33 km time trial of stage 5b, but he certainly did not fit into it comfortably. With several sprint bonuses on the last stage, Zemke - more renowned as a hill climber and time triallist - and his team had to be vigilant to ensure the Russian did not close the gap. Gritsoun certainly tried, taking 3 seconds by winning the first sprint, with Zemke in 4th and not gaining any time. Then, at the second sprint in Herborn the Russian did it again and the gap was down to 2 seconds, after Zemke grabbed 3rd. With one more to go, and a 10 second stage winning bonus, the German must have been having kittens! Gritsoun tried several more attacks during the 162 km stage to try and grab that last bonification, but was unsuccessful at the third sprint. He did protest that Zemke's teammate, Bert Dietz had hindered him in this sprint, but it was dismissed. It came down then to the final sprint - Gritsoun had to finish in the top 3 in front of Zemke to win the tour. But, he could not manage more than 12th and thus had to settle for second overall. Full marks for trying though! Polti's Mauro Zinetti won the stage from Martin van Steen (Ned, TVM) and Bjarke Nielsen (Den, Chicky World) in a mass sprint, but the real honours of the day went to 33-year old Zemke. Results: Stage 6 162.50 km, Avs: 40,47 km/h 1 Mauro Zinetti (Ita) Polti 4.00.54 2 Martin Van Steen (Ned) T.V.M Farm Frites 3 Bjarke Nielsen (Swe) Chicky World 4 Oleg Grichkine (Rus) Russia 5 Sebastian Siedler (Ger) Teag Kostritzer 6 Dennis Haueisen (Ger) Sparkassen-Versicherung Lv Hessen 7 Franz Stocher (Aut) Austria 8 Andrea Nencini (Ita) Polti 9 Patrik Köhler (Ger) Agro Adler 10 Torsten Rund (Ger) Deutschland/Bahn 11 Mario Zeckra (Ger) Peugeot Berlin 12 Edouard Gritsoun (Rus) Gerolsteiner 13 Allan Johansen (Den) Chicky World 14 Ronny Lauke (Ger) Continentale 15 Jens Zemke (Ger) Nürnberger 16 Timo Scholz (Ger) Köstritzer 17 Bert Dietz (Ger) Nürnberger 18 Jörn Reuss (Ger) Nürnberger 19 Kurt Schwarzlmüller (Aut) Austria 20 Ole Sigurd Simensen (Nor) Agro Adler Final General Classification: 1 Jens Zemke (Ger) Nurnberger 25.05.10 2 Edouard Gritsoun (Rus) Gerolsteiner 00.02.00 3 Florigan Wiesinger (Aut) Austria 00.30.00 4 Georg Totschnig (Aut) Austria 01.12.00 5 Mauro Zinetti (Ita) Polti 01.29.00 6 Jorn Reuss (Ger) Nurnberger 01.42.00 7 Allan Johansen (Den) Chicky World 02.10.00 8 Ole Sigurt Simensen (Nor) Agro-Adler Brandenburg 02.33.00 9 Michael Schlickau (Ger) Deutschland Strasse 07.59.00 10 Kurt Schwarzelmueller (Aut) Austria 08.37.00 11 Steffen Kjoergaard (Nor) Chicky World 16.04.00 12 Rico Schmidt (Ger) Peugeot Rad Berlin 19.04.00 13 Martin Van Steen (Ned) T.V.M Farm Frites 19.25.00 14 Denis Lunghiu (Ita) Polti 20.19.00 15 Andrea Nencini (Ita) Polti 20.57.00 16 Svein Gaute Holestol (Nor) Chicky World 21.02.00 17 Anton Chantyr (Aut) Gerolsteiner 25.03.00 18 Coen Boerman (Ned) Rabobank (U23) 26.57.00 19 Torsten Schmidt (Ger) Chicky World 28.18.00 20 Oleg Grichkine (Rus) Russia 32.03.00 21 Torsten Rund (Ger) Deutschland Bahn 32.22.00 22 Patrick Kohler (Ger) Agro-Adler Brandenburg 34.10.00 23 Bram de Waard (Ned) Rabobank (U23) 36.16.00 24 Dennis Haueisen (Ger) Sparkassen-Versicherung Lv Hessen 44.04.00 25 Bernhardt Wachter (Ger) Sparkassen-Versicherung Lv Hessen 44.10.00 26 Olaf Pollack (Ger) Agro-Adler Brandenburg 46.18.00 27 Sebastian Siedler (Ger) Teag Kostritzer 47.38.00 28 Nicki Sorensen (Den) Chicky World 48.51.00 29 Franz Stocher (Aut) Austria 48.58.00 30 Andrei Minachkine (Rus) Russia 49.57.00 31 Bert Scheirlinckx (Bel) T.V.M Farm Frites 50.34.00 32 Stefan van Dyk (Ned) Rabobank (U23) 54.16.00 33 Pieter Fries (Ned) T.V.M Farm Frites 58.24.00 34 Timo Scholz (Ger) Teag Kostritzer 59.37.00 35 Peter Wrolich (Aut) Gerolsteiner 00.54.00 36 Bjarke Nielsen (Swe) Chicky World 02.25.00 37 Roland Muller (Ger) Nurnberger 03.39.00 38 Vincent van der Kooy (Ned) Rabobank (U23) 05.11.00 39 Olegue Joukov (Rus) Russia 06.21.00 40 Ronny Lauke (Ger) Die Continentale/Olympia 10.50.00 41 Thomas Liese (Ger) Nurnberger 14.59.00 42 Bert Dietz (Ger) Nurnberger 17.50.00 43 Jonas Hudulla (Ger) Sparkassen-Versicherung Lv Hessen 17.50.00 44 Andrew Kalfack (Ger) Peugeot Rad Berlin 23.22.00 45 Dmitri Galkine (Rus) Russia 25.19.00 46 Franck Perque (Fra) France 29.05.00 47 Andres Kappes (Ger) Agro-Adler Brandenburg 31.48.00 48 Robert Bartko (Ger) Deutschland Bahn 33.12.00 49 Christian Lademann (Ger) Deutschland Bahn 34.13.00 50 Mario Zeckra (Ger) Peugeot Rad Berlin 35.26.00 51 Serguei Ossipov (Rus) Russia 40.16.00 52 mark Vlijm (Ned) Rabobank (U23) 18.10.00 53 Stijn Westrik (Ned) Rabobank (U23) 27.34.00 54 Marco Appler (Ger) Peugeot Rad Berlin 28.56.00 55 Markus Zingen (Ger) Sparkassen-Versicherung Lv Hessen 38.59.00 Sprints, white jersey: Olaf Pollack (Ger) Deutschland Points: Steffen Kjörgaard (Den) Team Chicky World