Team Columbia has the largest contingent of riders nominated by the German Cycling Federation (BDR) for the World Championships in Varese, Italy. The Worlds are being held from the 23-28th of September. Behind Team Columbia's 7 riders, Team Gerolsteiner has 6, Milram 3 and Rabbobank 1.
From the 17 riders that have been nominated nine will contest the road race and two will take the start in the time trial. Currently it looks like Olympic participants Stefan Schumacher, Fabian Wegmann, Gerald Ciolek and Bert Grabsch will all go to Varese.
It also looks like Columbia rider Linus Gerdemann's hard work has paid off. Returning to competition only three weeks ago, the young stage winner in the 2007 Tour de France has made the short list. Evergreen Erik Zabel has also made the first cut.
The preliminary list of riders:
Burghardt, Marcus; Columbia team
Ciolek, Gerald; Columbia team
Fothen, Markus; team Gerolsteiner
Gerdemann, Linus; Columbia team
Grabsch, Bert; Columbia team
Greipel, Andre; Columbia team
Häussler, Heinrich; team Gerolsteiner
Knees, Christian; Team Milram
Lang, Sebastian; team Gerolsteiner
Martens, Paul; Rabobank team
Martin, Tony; Columbia team
Scholz, Ronny; team Gerolsteiner
Schroeder, Björn; Team Milram
Schumacher, Stefan; team Gerolsteiner
Sieberg, Marcel; Columbia team
Wegmann, Fabian; team Gerolsteiner
Zabel, Erik; Team Milram