Fantastic performance by Jens Voigt
[14.08 16:59] Jens Voigt delivered nothing less than a fantastic performance, coming in second after the Spaniard David Lopez (Caisse d'Epargne) in the queen's stage of the Deutschland Tour. The German thus surprisingly increased his overall lead in the 158-kilometre fifth stage from Sonthofen to Sölden.
The stage ended with the 12.3-kilometre Reffenbachferner climb with its average gradient of no less than 11.0%. Voigt had hoped to keep his time loss down to less than a minute behind time trial expert Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) on the climb, but in fact it was the American who lost almost a minute while Voigt was only 13 seconds behind the stage winner.
A group of 15 riders fairly quickly broke away on the climb and Chris Anker Sørensen was also among them. It was an elimination race all the way up and Voigt just kept on going at the maximum tempo he could without exploding. Lopez was alone up front for the last 4–5 kilometres, but Voigt managed to maintain more or less the same tempo and as time went on all the others were shaken off, so Voigt rode to the finish in second place.
"It was an amazing performance by Jens. Of course, we had hoped he could do it, but, sometimes there's a big difference between what we hope and what actually happens. But he is incredible," said sports director Kim Andersen after the stage, and went on:
"The stage developed the way we wanted it to. Bobby Julich was part of an early breakaway in which he was the best placed rider, so although Discovery Channel had two men in it too, they chose to close the gap anyway. Then came a seven-man breakaway that Discovery Channel and Lampre quickly began to chase, so we didn't actually have to work hard on the way to the climb," said Kim Andersen, who was also very happy about Chris Anker Sørensen's really good ninth place.
"It is simply incredible what that lad is already managing to do just six months after turning professional. It was a joy to see how he struggled and fought, and he hasn't been sitting around doing nothing the last couple of days either. Unfortunately, he just managed to lose the white jersey by about ten seconds to Robert Gessink [Rabobank], but it is still absolutely fantastic what he's doing down here," said a clearly happy Kim Andersen.
If you are a member of Team CSC Official Fan Club you can read an interview with both Jens Voigt and Chris Anker Sørensen after the stage. Click here to go to the interview with Voigt.
Sonthofen - Sölden, 158km; Results |
