Germany absent from the ProTeams
The UCI’s recent announcement of the highest-level cycling teams in the sport makes it official that 2011 will be the first time in 20 years that Germany does not have a team on that list.
Germany dropped from three to zero ProTour teams in a remarkably short time, most recently losing the third and final team, Milram, which has folded due to their inability to secure funding for next season.
“For German cycling, I see black,” said cyclist Markus Fothen to the Stuttgarter Nachrichten.
Markus Fothen and his brother Thomas are among the nine riders left without a team after the folding of Milram. Seven years ago Fothen was the world under-23 time-trial champion. In 2006 he went one-on-one with Damiano Cunego is the struggle for the best
young rider’s jersey in the Tour de France, where he finished in 15th overall. Now the 29-year-old is considering working on his parents’ pig farm.
“This is a very bad thing,” said Hans Holczer, who was the manager of the former German ProTour team Gerolsteiner. “Without a first-class team, the structures are missing to promote talent. The current professionals need to go abroad, but will get less recognition
and money there. It’s a lousy cycle.”
T-Mobile left the sport when Jan Ullrich was implicated in Operación Puerto, leading to the collapse of the first of the three German teams. When Stefan Schumacher tested positive, Gerolsteiner left the sport. And now Milram has left.
“Professional cycling needs Germany,” said Milram team manager Gerry Van Gerwen after his lengthy and unsuccessful search for a replacement sponsor. “The question remains whether Germany needs professional cycling.”
With the end of November approaching, a last-minute signing is becoming less and less likely for Fothen, Dominik Roels, Matthias Russ and the other former Milram riders left hanging.
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