Right, I certainly didn't expect it would be me that was first to comment on this, but OK.
German semi-classics season has started; the Skoda Velothon-Berlin is to come, and of course the most prestigious (and interesting) of them, the Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt on May 1 is the culmination of the miniseason, but today we have the
Rund um Köln.
Here is the route for the German sprinters' classic:
And the parcours:
As you can see, it's mostly rolling, dropping down to a more or less totally flat closing circuit (the only elevation change is a bridge and a highway junction at one end of the circuit) on the banks of Father Rhein. Although in the past the likes of Erik Dekker and Jan Ullrich have managed to triumph here, it has in recent years been a race for the second-tier sprinters; its calendar spot just after the height of the Northern Classics affects that, with recent winners including Juan José Haedo and last year's winner Michael Matthews, who sadly will not be defending his title.
The race entry list isn't too bad for the level of race (1.1), with a few WT teams, a selection of interested ProConti teams and a host of Continentals to make up the field.
The pro teams have some noteworthy names; Rabobank's team comes chocked full of potential winners of the race, with Mark Renshaw, Theo Bos and Graeme Brown all riding... well, provided Wilco Kelderman lets them, of course. Saxo will be all in for Juan José Haedo, a two time winner of this race in 2007 and 2010. Vacansoleil's line up looks like something of an odds-and-sods set-up, but Kenny van Hummel will no doubt look to contest the win here, while Rüdiger Selig will be Katyusha's main threat.
Then, we have the German national team. A strange lineup, this one, ranging from World Tour riders (Lampre's Danilo Hondo, OPQS' Gerald Ciolek, Sky's Christian Knees), ProConti names (Europcar's Björn Thurau) to Continental level talents (Atlas Personal's Florian Salzinger and Team Differdange's Sascha Weber), and non-road specialists (Christoph Pfingsten rides on the road for De Rijke but is better known as a cyclocross rider, while KED-Bianchi's Robert Bengsch is best known for his track expertise and 6-days racing). Looking at the lineup, Ciolek and Hondo will probably be the best bets, though I would expect Bengsch to be pretty quick, just have no idea how likely he is to make it to the end. Then again, a few years ago he won the Tour Alsace, so he can't be a total scrub.
Team NetApp have a decent strength team in the race, but I don't really see anybody who's going to threaten to win unless Cesare Benedetti is really on song; the team could make the race difficult to control though, with several strong riders who won't fancy the likely sprint finish. There are competent selections from Landbouwkrediet and Champion System, but Argos-Shimano and Rusvelo are more likely to make their presence felt in the grand scheme of things. United Healthcare's Robert Förster could also be a dark horse.
After this we have the German Continental teams. A few of these are purely developmental - Heizomat, Thüringer Energie, LKT Brandenburg - while another is almost entirely developmental except for former Milram break specialist Björn Schröder - TT Raiko Stölting. Of the others, a few familiar names could put together some results - Andreas Stauff at Eddy Merckx-Indeland and the evergreen Steffen Radochla and NSP-Ghost being the most likely.
Then we have the external third-tier teams. I know little of Tirol Cycling Team or Cycling Team Jo Piels, I'm afraid, but there are some names I recognise at Glud en Marstrand (André Steensen in particular). MTN-Qhubeka have had some very good results recently in Morocco, and Reinart Janse van Rensburg in particular has looked impressive, so maybe they are worth looking out for. By far the most threatening third tier team, however, is An Post-Séan Kelly, as though this is far from their strongest lineup, Gediminas Bagdonas is leading the team and can be relied on to make a terror of himself in the sprint.
There is apparently live coverage starting on local TV at 16:50, if anybody's interested.
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