- Feb 20, 2010
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It's time once again for one of my favourite little races. The former Rund um den Henninger Turm (briefly also Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop) is perhaps the biggest traditional one-day race in Germany, held on May 1 every year and looping around the picturesque Taunus Mountains. It holds a special place in my heart because it was here that my love of cycling was born - I used to live on the race route.
The distance is 203km, and the route is not an easy one either. The biggest obstacle that the riders will have to face is the Großer Feldberg, which is a long but gradual climb of just over 20km in length from Oberursel. Profile here. Expect more of a selection to be made on the short but much more brutal Mammolshain, which averages a fairly benign 7% for its 3km length, but it does reach leg-punishing gradients of up to 26%. This is followed by the Ruppertshain (which we already sort of approached on the way down the Feldberg before), before a second loop finishing with the Mammolshain before the descent into the city of Frankfurt itself. There are a couple of smaller, less significant climbs (the loop around the University Campus Riedberg as the first climb of the day, and the Kittelhütte and Eppsteiner Bergs are just short rises). The finishing circuit in the city centre is pancake flat, finishing just outside the picturesque Alte Oper, but a chicane on the route about 500m out may derail potential sprint options. The chicane was decisive in 2010, when Fabian Wegmann attacked and got just enough separation to hold others off in the sprint; the finish is also around a gentle left hand turn - so coming around the outside isn't the best option in the sprint - indeed John Degenkolb got his win last year by biding his time and waiting for a gap to open on the left hand side, where he could straight line to the finish.
The last 10 winners:
2011 John Degenkolb (GER)
2010 Fabian Wegmann (GER)
2009 Fabian Wegmann (GER)
2008 Karsten Kroon (NED)
2007 Patrik Sinkewitz (GER)
2006 Stefano Garzelli (ITA)
2005 Erik Zabel (GER)
2004 Karsten Kroon (NED)
2003 Davide Rebellin (ITA)
2002 Erik Zabel (GER)
This shows what a varied race it can be! Degenkolb won from the biggest bunch to reach the finish in living memory (70 or so), while Wegmann's two wins were from a group of 25 and from a two-up sprint respectively. With the past winners ranging from sprinters to GT winners, it can serve up some surprises.
The race has been allocated four hours of coverage on Hessisch Rundfunk, which is a pretty impressive amount of coverage for a cycling race in Germany right now. They have broadcast the event start to finish for the last two years, however it is midweek this year (no relegation in status - the big thing with this race is the date. It will not budge from May 1, regardless of day of week) so this affects it slightly.
The list of teams is pretty decent, and gives us a few names to mention.
Argos-Shimano will be riding, naturally, with defending champion John Degenkolb. Roy Curvers, Simon Geschke and Johannes Fröhlinger will be his main support.
A strong Omega Pharma-Quick Step team will have Ciolek and Steegmans for the sprints, but Tony Martin and Guillaume van Keirsbulck if it isn't one of those, and Jérôme Pineau to get on the attack.
Liquigas' team is mostly odds and ends, but Dominik Nerz will be motivated, and Moreno Moser will be an interesting prospect.
Garmin also have a strong team; while Koldo Fernández is likely to be the man they entrust with the sprint, strong riders like Martijn Maaskant and David Millar will get involved, plus of course two-time winner Fabian Wegmann, who will no doubt involve himself in the business end of everything in the race.
Katyusha also have an odds and ends lineup, but in Rüdiger Selig they have a sprinting option, while Aliaksandr Kuschynski could be a name worth keeping an eye on too.
Vacansoleil will surely be key animators in this race; they have not brought a frontline sprinter, but they have brought a strong team, with Carrara, Marcato, Hoogerland and Poels all starting - they certainly won't be satisfied to see it go to a 70 man bunch like last year.
The German national team is stupidly strong - featuring a number of World Tour riders alongside track and cyclocross specialists. If it goes to a sprint, Lampre's Danilo Hondo and Lotto's Andre Greipel are options; if it doesn't, then BMC's Marcus Burghardt and Sky's Christian Knees come into it. Endura's Paul Voß will likely make some moves too.
Team NetApp will be on their final pre-Giro manoeuvres, with Grischa Janorschke and André Schulze likely to be their best options in this race. Never bet against Timon Seubert being in the break of the day either!
Cofidis have a reasonable lineup here; I would expect Leonardo Duque to be the biggest threat, but Adrien Petit is capable. Their compatriots at Saur-Sojasun have a bit of a makeshift lineup, but Julien Simon could be a threat - he's a good sprinter and is fairly durable - he was on the attack in the closing laps of the 2010 edition.
After this we have some of the smaller ProContinental teams; TopSport Vlaanderen have some interesting names, and RusVelo will surely be able to make their presence felt in the event of a sprint. Accent have Staf Scheirlinckx to hold the race together and Oleg Chuzhda to inevitably break it apart (god I hope we see him in Portugal again this year), while Champion System will probably be based around Gorik Gardeyn and a couple of the Australian imports, and Landbouwkrediet will undoubtedly be working for Bert de Waele, although Delfosse, Commeyne and Honig are no mugs and the team tends to do quite well here.
After this we have the German continental teams, 6 in all. Most of them filled with youngsters and breakaway fodder, but a few names you may be familiar with - Nutrixxion's Dirk Müller, Raiko Stölting's Björn Schröder, and NSP-Ghost's duo of Markus Fothen and Steffen Radochla.
Let fun commence!
The distance is 203km, and the route is not an easy one either. The biggest obstacle that the riders will have to face is the Großer Feldberg, which is a long but gradual climb of just over 20km in length from Oberursel. Profile here. Expect more of a selection to be made on the short but much more brutal Mammolshain, which averages a fairly benign 7% for its 3km length, but it does reach leg-punishing gradients of up to 26%. This is followed by the Ruppertshain (which we already sort of approached on the way down the Feldberg before), before a second loop finishing with the Mammolshain before the descent into the city of Frankfurt itself. There are a couple of smaller, less significant climbs (the loop around the University Campus Riedberg as the first climb of the day, and the Kittelhütte and Eppsteiner Bergs are just short rises). The finishing circuit in the city centre is pancake flat, finishing just outside the picturesque Alte Oper, but a chicane on the route about 500m out may derail potential sprint options. The chicane was decisive in 2010, when Fabian Wegmann attacked and got just enough separation to hold others off in the sprint; the finish is also around a gentle left hand turn - so coming around the outside isn't the best option in the sprint - indeed John Degenkolb got his win last year by biding his time and waiting for a gap to open on the left hand side, where he could straight line to the finish.
The last 10 winners:
2011 John Degenkolb (GER)
2010 Fabian Wegmann (GER)
2009 Fabian Wegmann (GER)
2008 Karsten Kroon (NED)
2007 Patrik Sinkewitz (GER)
2006 Stefano Garzelli (ITA)
2005 Erik Zabel (GER)
2004 Karsten Kroon (NED)
2003 Davide Rebellin (ITA)
2002 Erik Zabel (GER)
This shows what a varied race it can be! Degenkolb won from the biggest bunch to reach the finish in living memory (70 or so), while Wegmann's two wins were from a group of 25 and from a two-up sprint respectively. With the past winners ranging from sprinters to GT winners, it can serve up some surprises.
The race has been allocated four hours of coverage on Hessisch Rundfunk, which is a pretty impressive amount of coverage for a cycling race in Germany right now. They have broadcast the event start to finish for the last two years, however it is midweek this year (no relegation in status - the big thing with this race is the date. It will not budge from May 1, regardless of day of week) so this affects it slightly.
The list of teams is pretty decent, and gives us a few names to mention.
Argos-Shimano will be riding, naturally, with defending champion John Degenkolb. Roy Curvers, Simon Geschke and Johannes Fröhlinger will be his main support.
A strong Omega Pharma-Quick Step team will have Ciolek and Steegmans for the sprints, but Tony Martin and Guillaume van Keirsbulck if it isn't one of those, and Jérôme Pineau to get on the attack.
Liquigas' team is mostly odds and ends, but Dominik Nerz will be motivated, and Moreno Moser will be an interesting prospect.
Garmin also have a strong team; while Koldo Fernández is likely to be the man they entrust with the sprint, strong riders like Martijn Maaskant and David Millar will get involved, plus of course two-time winner Fabian Wegmann, who will no doubt involve himself in the business end of everything in the race.
Katyusha also have an odds and ends lineup, but in Rüdiger Selig they have a sprinting option, while Aliaksandr Kuschynski could be a name worth keeping an eye on too.
Vacansoleil will surely be key animators in this race; they have not brought a frontline sprinter, but they have brought a strong team, with Carrara, Marcato, Hoogerland and Poels all starting - they certainly won't be satisfied to see it go to a 70 man bunch like last year.
The German national team is stupidly strong - featuring a number of World Tour riders alongside track and cyclocross specialists. If it goes to a sprint, Lampre's Danilo Hondo and Lotto's Andre Greipel are options; if it doesn't, then BMC's Marcus Burghardt and Sky's Christian Knees come into it. Endura's Paul Voß will likely make some moves too.
Team NetApp will be on their final pre-Giro manoeuvres, with Grischa Janorschke and André Schulze likely to be their best options in this race. Never bet against Timon Seubert being in the break of the day either!
Cofidis have a reasonable lineup here; I would expect Leonardo Duque to be the biggest threat, but Adrien Petit is capable. Their compatriots at Saur-Sojasun have a bit of a makeshift lineup, but Julien Simon could be a threat - he's a good sprinter and is fairly durable - he was on the attack in the closing laps of the 2010 edition.
After this we have some of the smaller ProContinental teams; TopSport Vlaanderen have some interesting names, and RusVelo will surely be able to make their presence felt in the event of a sprint. Accent have Staf Scheirlinckx to hold the race together and Oleg Chuzhda to inevitably break it apart (god I hope we see him in Portugal again this year), while Champion System will probably be based around Gorik Gardeyn and a couple of the Australian imports, and Landbouwkrediet will undoubtedly be working for Bert de Waele, although Delfosse, Commeyne and Honig are no mugs and the team tends to do quite well here.
After this we have the German continental teams, 6 in all. Most of them filled with youngsters and breakaway fodder, but a few names you may be familiar with - Nutrixxion's Dirk Müller, Raiko Stölting's Björn Schröder, and NSP-Ghost's duo of Markus Fothen and Steffen Radochla.
Let fun commence!
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