Having spent the past two years working for Marcel Kittel and then in 2012 also assisting John Degenkolb in his successful sprint results, German rider Roger Kluge has decided to seize his own chances in 2013. The 26 year old has moved to the NetApp Endura team and will now dispute sprint finishes rather than being an important element in the leadout train for others.
“We are delighted to have signed up Roger Kluge to further support our sprint section,” said NetApp-Endura team manager Raph Denk, in announcing the addition. “Roger has experience in the UCI World Tour and was most recently lead-out rider for world class sprinters including Kittel and Degenkolb. His speed makes him ideal for our sprint team.”
While Kluge has often sacrificed his chances in recent seasons, the two time European track champion and former track World Cup winner has also clocked up some solid results himself.
These include fourth overall in the 2010 Tour of Qatar while with the Milram team, plus other top five placings since then on stages of the Tour of Oman, the Delta Tour Zeeland, the Tour of Austria, the Tour of California and the Critérium du Dauphiné.
Now he’ll get the chance to do that a lot more regularly, and with other riders set to help him in the NetApp leadout train, he is in the ideal position to start clocking up wins.
“Roger was last used in preparing for sprints, but we will now give him the chance to ride on his own account,” explained Denk. “We will change his preparations for the season so that, besides competing in a six-day race, he can concentrate fully on the road season.”
The team has merged with the Scottish Endura Racing squad, and will also include new additions such as former Tour of Ireland winner Russell Downing.
In total the German ProContinental team will number 21 riders in 2013.
Team NetApp – Endura 2013:
Jan Barta (27, CZE), Cesare Benedetti (25, ITA), Iker Camano Ortuzar (33, ESP), David de la Cruz (23, ESP), Zakkari Dempster (25, AUS), Russell Downing (34, GBR), Markus Eichler (30, GER), Bartosz Huzarski (32, POL), Blaz Jarc (24, SLO), Roger Kluge (25, GER), Leopold Koenig (24, CZE), Ralf Matzka (23, GER), Jonathan McEvoy (23, GBR), José Mendes (27, POR), Erick Rowsell (22, GBR), Andreas Schillinger (29, GER), Daniel Schorn (24, AUT), Michael Schwarzmann (21, GER), Scott Thwaites (22, GBR), Paul Voss (26, GER), Alexander Wetterhall (26, SWE)