Christian Knees lets Team MILRAM celebrate in Bavaria
Photo: courtesy Wim Dingemanse
Photo: courtesy Wim Dingemanse
MILRAM's Christian Knees topped off his strong performance of the last week with the overall win in the International Bayern Rundfahrt (UCI 2.HC). With an impressive show of teamwork, MILRAM caught a five-man escape group about three km before the finish line. In the mass sprint finish, second-placed Andreas Dietziker (Volksbank) did not finish in the top three and thus missed out on the time bonuses which would have given him the win. Winner of the sprint after 161 km from Bad Neustadt an der Saale to Erlangen was Heinrich Haussler (Gerolsteiner) ahead of Giovanni Bernadeau (Bouygues Telecom) and Mikail Chalilow (Ceramica Flaminia Bossoni Docce). Finishing third overall and defending the white jersey of the best young rider was MILRAM youngster Niki Terpstra.
„That is fantastic. The overall win is the reward for our whole team,“ said MILRAM allrounder Christian Knees. „When we had to make tempo at the end, seven of us went into the lead and together we caught the breakaway group. I would like to thank my team for that. I had my eye closely on Andreas Dietziker in the finale. He attacked and sprinted away to the right, and I could not hold his rear wheel, but could only hope that it would be enough for me. When he let his head hang, I know that I had won. Overall, the race was a lot of fun, there was always a good mood along the way. Together we will now celebrate this success.“
„That it was so unbelievably close at the end, I would never have thought,“ said Directeur Sportif Jochen Hahn. „I have to pay a huge compliment to my team. We presented ourselves here very well and got great results with the yellow and white jerseys. And now we can say, too, that Team MILRAM can also win without a sprinter.“
The fifth and last stage of the Bayern Rundfahrt started out fast right from the start. Numerous attacks were foiled by an attentive peloton, until by km 55 a five-rider group successfully got away. In the group was High Road's Bert Grabsch ( brother of MILRAM's Ralph Grabsch), who was only 1:12 minutes behind overall leader Christian Knees. Team MILRAM controlled things in the main field and held the escapees to a consistent lead of two minutes.
As they crossed the finish line for the first time, Team MILRAM took over full control of the chase. A seven-man long MILRAM train, including the yellow and white jerseys, helped to continually shrink the lead of the escape group. In the last 300 meters, Andreas Dietziker made a surprise attack. MILRAM's Christian Knees couldn't follow and the Swiss rider from Team Volksbank looked to finish in the top three, so that he could take the overall lead on time bonuses. In the end, Christian Knees beat him by about a half a wheel length.
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