Deutschland Tour - 2.2

Germany, June 3-9, 2003

2002 results Photography Stage List Preview Start List Past winners

The Stages

Stage 1 - June 3: Dresden - Altenburg, 184.1 km
Stage 2 - June 4: Altenburg - Kronach, 183 km
Stage 3 - June 5: Coburg - Ansbach, 188 km
Stage 4 - June 6: Ansbach - Bad Wurzach / Allgäu, 220 km
Stage 5 - June 7: Ravensburg - Feldberg, 191 km
Stage 6 - June 8: Bretten - Bretten ITT, 40.7 km
Stage 7 - June 9: Bad Dürkheim - Saarbrücken, 174.9 km

Zabel, Ullrich and co. battle on home ground

The 2003 edition of Germany's national tour kicks off in Dresden on Tuesday with a 178 kilometre stage to Altenburg. The Tour of Germany is a UCI 2.2 classed event, and is of course important for all the German teams, with Telekom (in particular) always under pressure to perform. On the German front there is also Gerolsteiner, with Bayern Rundfahrt winner Michael Rich in its ranks. Not forgetting Team Bianchi (the team formerly known as Team Coast), which contains the likes of Jan Ullrich and Angel Casero, as well as 2000 winner David Plaza. The final German team is Wiesenhof, with 1999 winner Jens Heppner the main star.

The rest of the 17 team field is well mixed, with three French teams, including Ag2r (Kirsipuu), La Boulangère (Nazon, Voeckler), and Crédit Agricole (Voigt, O'Grady), top Italian squads Fassa Bortolo (Bartoli, Basso), and Saeco (Celestino, Quaranta), Belgians Quick.Step-Davitamon (Museeuw, Rogers), Lotto-Domo (Merckx, Van Petegem), and Vlaanderen-T Interim (Devolder), as well as Bankgiroloterij (Voskamp, Koerts), ONCE (2002 winner Igor Gonzalez De Galdeano), Phonak (Strazzer), CCC Polsat (Nauduzs, Sosenka), and Team fakta (Sunderland, Bäckstedt and Arvesen).

The seven stage tour is generally hilly, although bunch sprints will still be quite common. The first two days contain a number of cat. 3 climbs, and these could be decisive in determining the overall winner. Stage 5 from Ravensburg to Feldberg is the toughest stage, measuring 191 kilometres and finishing atop a 1280m cat. 1 climb. The following day there is an undulating 40.7 km time trial in Bretten, and this will create some big gaps in the GC, before the final stage next Monday ending in Saarbrücken.

Start list

ONCE-Eroski                          Fassa Bortolo
 
1 Igor Gonzalez De Galdeano (Spa)    11 Michele Bartoli (Ita)
2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa)     12 Ivan Basso (Ita)
3 José Azevedo (Por)                 13 Francesco Chicchi (Ita)
4 Xavier Florencio Cabre (Spa)       14 Juan José De Los Angeles Segui (Spa)
5 Jan Hruska (Cze)                   15 Roberto Petito (Ita)
6 Jörg Jaksche (Ger)                 16 Filippo Pozzato (Ita)
7 Isidro Nozal Vega (Spa)            17 Gorazd Stangelj (Slo)
8 Angel Vicioso Arcos (Spa)          18 Fabian Cancellara (Swi)
 
Ag2R Prevoyance                      Quick Step-Davitamon
 
21 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est)               31 Johan Museeuw (Bel)
22 Lauri Aus (Est)                   32 Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun)
23 Stéphane Berges (Fra)             33 Kevin Hulsmans (Bel)
24 Christophe Agnolutto (Fra)        34 Domenico Passuello (Ita)
25 Mark Scanlon (Irl)                35 Aurélien Clerc (Swi)
26 Thierry Loder (Fra)               36 Michael Rogers (Aus)
27 Erki Pütsep (Est)                 37 Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel)
28 Olivier Trastour (Fra)            38 Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger)
 
Team Telekom                         Lotto-Domo
 
41 Rolf Aldag (Ger)                  51 Serge Baguet (Bel)
42 Santiago Botero Echeverry (Col)   52 Glenn D'hollander (Bel)
43 Danilo Hondo (Ger)                53 Christophe Brandt (Bel)
44 Matthias Kessler (Ger)            54 Axel Merckx (Bel)
45 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita)            55 Leon Van Bon (Ned)
46 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz)        56 Stefan Van Dijck (Ned)
47 Steffen Wesemann (Ger)            57 Peter Van Petegem (Bel)
48 Erik Zabel (Ger)                  58 Wim Vansevenant (Bel)
 
Brioches La Boulangere               Phonak Hearing Systems
 
61 Fabrice Salanson (Fra)            71 Michael Albasini (Swi)
62 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra)          72 Denis Bertolini (Ita)
63 Jimmy Engoulvent (Fra)            73 Niki Aebersold (Swi)
64 Christophe Kern (Fra)             74 Martin Elmiger (Swi)
65 Emmanuel Magnien (Fra)            75 Bert Grabsch (Ger)
66 Damien Nazon (Fra)                76 Stefan Kupfernagel (Ger)
67 Olivier Perraudeau (Fra)          77 Massimo Strazzer (Ita)
68 Thomas Voeckler (Fra)             78 Grégory Rast (Swi)
 
Team Bianchi                         Credit Agricole
 
81 Angel Luis Casero Moreno (Spa)    91 Jens Voigt (Ger)
82 Aitor Garmendia Arbilla (Spa)     92 Stuart O'grady (Aus)
83 Thomas Liese (Ger)                93 Stéphane Auge (Fra)
84 David Plaza Romero (Spa)          94 Christopher Jenner (Fra)
85 Fabrizio Guidi (Ita)              95 Marcus Ljungqvist (Swe)
86 Raphael Schweda (Ger)             96 Sébastien Hinault (Fra)
87 Tobias Steinhauser (Ger)          97 Lilian Jegou (Fra)
88 Jan Ullrich (Ger)                 98 Yan Tournier (Fra)
 
Gerolsteiner                         Team Saeco
 
101 Udo Bölts (Ger)                  111 Giosuè Bonomi (Ita)
102 René Haselbacher (Aut)           112 Salvatore Commesso (Ita)
103 Uwe Peschel (Ger)                113 Mirko Celestino (Ita)
104 Olaf Pollack (Ger)               114 Nicola Gavazzi (Ita)
105 Davide Rebellin (Ita)            115 Jörg Ludewig (Ger)
106 Torsten Schmidt (Ger)            116 Cristian Pepoli (Ita)
107 Michael Rich (Ger)               117 Gerrit Glomser (Aut)
108 Fabian Wegmann (Ger)             118 Ivan Quaranta (Ita)
 
Team fakta                           CCC Polsat
 
121 Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Nor)          131 Andris Nauduzs (Lat)
122 Magnus Backstedt (Swe)           132 Arkadiusz Wojtas (Pol)
123 Michael Skelde (Den)             133 Bogdan Bondariew (Ukr)
124 Julian Winn (GBr)                134 Slawomir Kohut (Pol)
125 Allan Johansen (Den)             135 Dariusz Skoczylas (Pol)
126 Jorgen Bo Petersen (Den)         136 Jacek Mickiewicz (Pol)
127 Scott Sunderland (Aus)           137 Jaroslaw Zarebski (Pol)
128 Bjarke Nielsen (Den)             138 Marc Weisshaupt (Ger)
 
Bankgiroloterij Cycling Team         Team Wiesenhof
 
141 Bart Voskamp (Ned)               151 Martin Müller (Ger)
142 Gerben Löwik (Ned)               152 Enrico Poitschke (Ger)
143 Bram Schmitz (Ned)               153 Jens Heppner (Ger)
144 Jan Van Velzen (Ned)             154 Ralf Grabsch (Ger)
145 Remco Van Der Ven (Ned)          155 Lars Wackernagel (Ger)
146 Matthé Pronk (Ned)               156 Thomas Ziegler (Ger)
147 Jans Koerts (Ned)                157 Eric Baumann (Ger)
148 Bert Hiemstra (Ned)              158 Roberto Lochowski (Ger)
 
Vlaanderen-T Interim
 
161 Stijn Devolder (Bel)
162 Geoffrey Demeyere (Bel)
163 Jan Kuyckx (Bel)
164 Matthew Gilmore (Bel)
165 James Vanlandschoot (Bel)
166 Wouter Van Mechelen (Bel)
167 Jan Verstraeten (Bel)
168 Wim Van Huffel (Bel)

Past winners

2002 Igor Gonzalez De Galdeano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski
2001 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Deutsche Telekom
2000 David Plaza Garcia (Spa) Festina
1999 Jens Heppner (Ger) Telekom

Past winners by Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com