- Feb 20, 2010
- 33,066
- 15,280
- 28,180
Today, we have the Rudi Altig Race, part of the three day Rad am Ring festival at the Nürburgring; the pro race had been added to the festival to add a bit more interest and was going to be called something like Rund um die Nordschleife or so forth, before the recent death of the former World Champion, who indeed took his rainbow jersey on the hallowed "Green Hell" in 1966. Though a purpose-build motor racing venue, the switchbacks through the Eifel mountainst and the varying terrain has made the course a popular and interesting cycling course, hosting the World Championships on three occasions - 1927 (won by Alfredo Binda), 1966 (won as mentioned by Rudi Altig) and 1978 (won by Gerrie Knetemann).
The race is comparatively short, unfortunately, so with the long and mostly straight last few kilometres of the Nordschleife there is the possibility that a medium-sized group can come back together, but certainly the climb up around the iconic Karussell should enforce a decent level of selectivity in a mixed field for a 1.1 race. The startlist is here and features some odds-and-sods lineups from the bigger teams in the race, predictably with the Olympics upcoming and so many races coterminous at the moment.
You have a 5-man Giant-Alpecin lineup, some fairly strong potential candidates in the Bora squad (Büchmann, Konrad, Nerz for example), Stölting have Gerdemann and Kämna, CCC have a good squad of potential contenders including Rebellin and Hirt, Gazprom only have five starters but Kolobnev is one of them, don't count out Mamyr Stash either, who has had some useful domestic results in hilly races. Verva have Karel Hnik as their most recognizable name. There's then a succession of central European continental teams, with a handful of names that could contribute. Vorarlberg might be the most interesting, with a varied lineup including veteran Portuguese aggressor Sérgio Sousa and former Brétagne man Clément Koretzky.
The race is comparatively short, unfortunately, so with the long and mostly straight last few kilometres of the Nordschleife there is the possibility that a medium-sized group can come back together, but certainly the climb up around the iconic Karussell should enforce a decent level of selectivity in a mixed field for a 1.1 race. The startlist is here and features some odds-and-sods lineups from the bigger teams in the race, predictably with the Olympics upcoming and so many races coterminous at the moment.
You have a 5-man Giant-Alpecin lineup, some fairly strong potential candidates in the Bora squad (Büchmann, Konrad, Nerz for example), Stölting have Gerdemann and Kämna, CCC have a good squad of potential contenders including Rebellin and Hirt, Gazprom only have five starters but Kolobnev is one of them, don't count out Mamyr Stash either, who has had some useful domestic results in hilly races. Verva have Karel Hnik as their most recognizable name. There's then a succession of central European continental teams, with a handful of names that could contribute. Vorarlberg might be the most interesting, with a varied lineup including veteran Portuguese aggressor Sérgio Sousa and former Brétagne man Clément Koretzky.
I hope he'll get picked up by a PCT or WT team for next year, he and Dupont surely are two guys who should have been on such a team for a long time! I hope he wins the EuropeTour and Coupe De France too!
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