The 2012 version of Bayern-Rundfahrt
A total number of 19 teams will ride the 2012 version of the Bayern-Rundfahrt. Nine World Tour teams, five Professional Continental and five Continental teams will ride the event.
Organisers have announced the nine World Tour teams and the remaining ten will be finalised later on.
Team Euskaltel-Euskadi, Team FDJ-Big Mat, Team Garmin-Barracuda, Team RadioShack, Team GreenEdge, Team Katusha, Team Lampre-ISD, Team Sky and Team Saxo Bank are the nine World Tour teams.
Most of the participating teams are also lining up for the Tour de France and will use the German race as to fine-tune ahead of the French Grand Tour.
Event organiser Ewald Strohmeier noted that almost half of the professional continental teams to ride the Bayern-Rundfahrt are most likely to receive a wild-card invitation to ride the Tour de France.
“The further starting places in the Tour de France have not yet been announced. But at least four the teams, who will get a wild-card from us, are also top candidates for the Tour de France”.
Hartmut Bölts is the race’s new sports director and he has mentioned that the race will be participated by a number of super stars in the cycling world.
Ewald noted, “The Bayern Rundfahrt has an outstanding reputation, so that we expect top riders even though we are up against the Giro d'Italia”.
The 33rd version of the German race is scheduled from May 23rd to 27. The race became a UCI 2. HC event in 2005 and is recognised as a major cycling event in Europe.
The contest was first held in 1989 and German cyclist Kai Hundertmarck succeeded during the first edition. Jens Voigt and Michael Rich both hold the honour of winning it for a maximum number of 3 times each.
Geraint Thomas of Great Britain claimed the overall victory during the Bayern-Rundfahrt. He is eyeing his second consecutive win at the race.
All the professional continental and the continental teams are looking ahead to make it through to the final team’s list of the race.
The Bayern-Rundfahrt normally favours the sprinters and it is believed that the coming version of the race will not be as sprinter friendly as the previous seasons.
New route of the race reveals that the climbers will have an equal opportunity to grab the podium spot especially during the first two stages.
The cyclists will cover a total distance of 799 kilometres during the five days of the race and final winner will be announced on 27th May.
The first stage of the race stretches between the Traunstein to Penzberg and the second between Penzberg to Kempten contains a number of ascends to help the climbers.
The third stage of the race will be an ideal opportunity for the sprinters to strengthen their grip on the overall classifications.
The 26 kilometre time trial stage four of the race will decide the overall winner, who will receive the honours on the final day.
John Degenkolb, Marcel Kittel, Andrew Greipel, Tony Martin, Linus Gerdemann, Jens Voigt and Gerald Ciolek are amongst the favourites to succeed in this year’s race.
The race is supported by its main financial backer Volksbank Raffeisenbank who has now extended its contract for the 2015 season.
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