High Road fastman Gerald Ciolek has used his fine turn of speed to see off
the opposition for a second stage win in the Bayern Rundfahrt and reinforce his lead overall.
Already the fastest in stage one of the prestigious German race, Ciolek took
his second victory of the season at the end of stage three from Donauworth to Wurzburg. After the neutral start in Donauwörth,
the stage beginning was marked by a number of unsuccessful attacks. After 65 km, the duo of Daniel Becke (Thüringer Energie
Team) and Kim Lachmann (Team Mapei Heizomat) made a break. They stayed away for about 100 km before the sprint teams caught
the escapees.
"There was a two-lap circuit at the end and that shredded the group to around
40 riders, which was a help.” Ciolek said afterwards.
"Winning is always difficult, but with a smaller group I could position myself
better for the final sprint and it wasn’t so complicated as when I won two days ago.
"[Team-mate] Kim Kirchen led me out through the final corner and up to
about 250 or 200 metres to go and then away I went. It’s funny that I should get two wins in three days after winning
nothing all season beforehand, but that often happens.”
“Once you get a certain degree of confidence, particularly if you’re
a sprinter, then the wins suddenly start arriving. You feel freer once you’ve got your first victory of the season,
so you race better.”
Second and third places went to Paul Voss (Team 3C-Gruppe) and Luca Paolini
(Aqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo).
Milram's Christian Knees finished fourth, which was a bit surprising as the
stage was decided by a bunch sprint. “We wanted to build up an advantage for Niki and me today over the time trialists,“
said Christian Knees. „So we turned up the tempo at the end. The supported Niki and me wonderfully. Too bad that we
couldn't get away at the end.“
„We wanted to pull the field apart on the closing round with a high speed,“
said Milram's sports director Jochen Hahn. „Unfortunately, the climb wasn't as steep as expected, so that we couldn't
drop our rivals. We are doing well in the overall rankings with Christian Knees and Niki Terpstra. Niki is a good time trialist,
so we'll see what he can do tomorrow.“
Even though his overall advantage prior to tomorrow’s crucial time trial
is nearly 30 seconds, Ciolek is anything but optimistic about his chances of maintaining the overall lead.
"Really I think 24 kilometres is too long for me to have much chance although
obviously I will fight to stay in the lead as hard as I can. I will check out the time trial course before actually racing
it. But that’s partly because I want to avoid training on the rollers as a warm-up - I find that really boring!”
The fourth stage on Saturday, May 31, is an individual time trial in Bad Neustadt
an der Saale. The lightly rolling, 25.9 km long course with start and finish in the town will probably decide the final overall
winner.
