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Erik Zabel Leads Young Milram Team At Vuelta

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28.08.2008/Erik Zabel is leading a young Milram team in the 63rd edition of the Vuelta a Espana (August 30-Sepetmber 21). With riders averaging 25 years old, the German ProTour team will go hunting for stage wins in the Spanish Grand Tour. Along with the 38 year-old Zabel, Directeur Sportif Oscar Pellicioli will look to Germans Artur Gajek, Christian Kux and Sebastian Schwager, the two Slovaks Martin Velits and Matej Jurco, Andrey Grivko and Volodymyr Diudda of the Ukraine and the Italian Fabio Sabatini – all of whom are 25 years old or younger.

© Cyclingheroes
Erik Zabel leads Milram at the Vuelta a Espana. (© Cyclingheroes)

"Looking at it athletically, we have a chance of a stage win in the 11 flat stages," said Milram captain Erik Zabel. "In light of the competition there, that surely won't be as easy as at the Tour de France, but maybe at the Vuelta I will be luck enough to catch a perfect sprint. In this season I unexpectedly rode the Giro d'Italia, when we lost Alessandro Petacchi. Since the Tour and the Vuelta have long been part of my season planning, I can go ahead and live out my long-year plan of one time riding all three Grand Tours in one year."

The Vuelta 2008 contains many challenges for the riders. Starting with a 7.7 km team time trial with start and finish in Granada in southern Spain, the first week covers flat to rolling stages, including an individual time trial, up to the first rest day in Toledo in the middle of the Iberian peninsula.

After a tranfer on the rest day, the peloton heads off on the seventh stage from Barbatro, in nothern Spain, for three stages in a row in the high mountains. After three flat stages, the race makes another pause in Suances, on the northern Spanis coast, Costa de Cantabria.

There is no long transfer before the two very difficult mountain stages plus one middle-difficulty transition stage, followed by three more flat stages heading into the middle of Spain. Here the final rankings will be determined by the 19th stage which runs over 145.5 km and two Cat. II climbs from Las Rozas to Segovia, as well as the mountain time trial in the 20th stage near the Spanish capital of Madrid. The following closing stage is flat and ends with the traditional mass sprint in the heart of Madrid.
 
Milram for Vuelta Espana 2008:
 
Andrey Grivko (UKR), Artur Gajek (GER), Christian Kux (GER ), Erik Zabel (GER), Fabio Sabatini (ITA ), Martin Velits (SVK ), Matej Jurco (SVK), Sebastian Schwager (GER) and Volodymyr Diudia (UKR )

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