Burghardt wins the seventh stage of Tour Of Switzerland
Switzerland is always a fine place to trip and the scenic country become more special when the tour of Switzerland is running. This season’s race, like always, makes the three days of the race filled with excitement and thrill. During the seventh stage of the race on Friday, Markus Burghardt of Germany marked his second victory of the race which he claims as being much more exciting than the previous one.
The weather had been cold with cold breeze flowing all over the hills and the temperature dropped to ten degree after the rainfall. After the race, Burghardt told the media that it was a hard race owing to the cold that made his legs hurt during the hilly stages. The rider covered a distance of 60 km by finishing one minute and one second ahead of Oscar Freire of Spain. The third place was successfully occupied by Belgian Greg Van Avermaet. The overall lead was attained by Dutchman Robert Gesink who belongs to the Rabobank team.
It took more than one hour of laborious cycling after which Burghardt who races for the BMC Racing, was able to leave behind all the chasers on the wild and hilly track that stretched up to 204.1 km starting from Savognin to Wetzikon.
When Burghardt got to know that he was the one finishing the stage as the winner near the finish line, he grabbed a German flag from a close by spectator and started waving as he began his celebrations.
Earlier this week, he had his first stage win, which marked the end of two long winless years.
As he returned from the race, he told Reuters in an interview that it was great to have won after not being able to win since 2008. Burghardt added that he had made it to the top after all and that it was a big come back for him. Burghardt also informed that the tour did not begin very well for him. However, he came to the Tour of Switzerland only to get some good practice and training in order to strengthen his legs for the race kilometres. Burghardt told that he preparing for the Tour de France for which he is now even more enthusiastic. Burghardt concluded that that this time round, Switzerland was very different from what he had experienced the last time he landed in the country. On another question, Burghardt accepted that the competition was tougher than before and it was a difficult job to win the race.
Marcus Burghardt has been cycling professionally since 2005; however as an amateur, he had already participated in the U-23 Wiesenhof team, where he had already made his recognition by getting the overall win at the Bundesliga Gerlingen in 2004. Whereas, the American racing sensation and the seven -time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong finished at the seventh place.
Later in 2007, Burghardt was successful in winning the UCI ProTour race Gent-Wevelgem leaving his teammate Roger Hammond at second place.
In the same year, he came under a lot of criticism when he hit a dog on the track while racing at the ninth stage of the 2007 Tour de France. In the following year, Burghardt was successful in winning Stage 18 of the 2008 Tour de France, beating Carlos Barredo who was also his break-away compatriot.
His current team BMC Racing Team signed him for the 2010 season. The team seems very happy with their decision for hiring him and hopes to see him win as the race ends on Sunday. He talked about the rest of the two days, saying that his biggest rival for an overall victory is Armstrong as he is the most dangerous man on the track. He would keep his focus and would try to win as the race ends this weekend with an individual time trial.
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