It was again that weekend of the year, where (almost) everywhere all over the world the countries were looking for their national champions. Most of them are allowed to wear those famous jerseys with the flags of their country on that everybody of the riders wants to wear throughout the next 12 months.
The nationals in Germany took place in a very old city named Erfurt. The history of this city goes back to the year 742 ac when it was first time officially named. And this city shows really a lot of this history when visiting it with its old houses and the huge cathedral in the city center. But not only the city has a huge tradition, also the German Championships do, as already so many famous names won this race and took the jersey with the black-red-gold ring on it, such as Erik Zabel, Jan Ullrich or Didi Thurau.
This time, all focus was on the two best sprinters in the world: André Greipel and Marcel Kittel. The latter was very motivated as he originally comes from Erfurt and it was his “home-race” and everything was set to welcome Kittel with the stripes after the race. But a lot of riders want to wear this beautiful jersey and the fight was on. 215 long kilometers, windy and fast. Almost 50 Kilometers on the clock for the first hour, suffering legs and hard fights for any position in the bunch. It was a real Championship. And when the end had come, it was the expected showdown in a bunch sprint final between the two giants of cycling. After a long sprint it was André Greipel who won for the third time the title of German Champion. And the young guy Max Walscheid from Giant –Alpecin left Marcel Kittel only the third place.
And what did the boys from Stradalli – BIKE AID do? They did great! They all fought a hard fight and brought Patrick Lechner in a good position and only with a chaotic final he missed a even better place than his 15th. And also Niko Holler finished in the Top 20 with his 19th rank.
Meanwhile in Eritrea: Meron Teshome took in a breathtaking fight with Daniel Teklehaimanot the silver medal only beaten by 34 seconds from the Eritrean hero and werarer of the polka-dot jersey in last year’s Tour de France. A great week-end for all Stradalli – BIKE AID riders! Well done!
