Fresh from two stage wins in the Tour of Poland, German rider André Greipel is now turning his sights to the Vattenfalls Cyclassic race in Hamburg this Sunday. The 28 year old has a chance to take what would be his 17th win of the season on home soil, and will be determined to improve on the modest 30th place he achieved last year.
Greipel will be backed by a strong HTC Columbia squad, namely Michael Albasini, Lars Bak, Gert Dockx, Matt Goss, Marcel Sieberg, plus the Velits brothers Martin and Peter. Directeur sportif Jan Schaffrath said that it isn’t guaranteed to come down to a bunch sprint, though, and so the team is willing to play other cards.
“For Germans this is the biggest race of the country and with huge crowds and lots of friends there, for us it is a very special event,” he stated. “Vattenfalls is never an easy race. The climbs aren't so long but they're steep and very narrow, and as it's quite short, just over 200 kilometres, it'll be difficult to control.
“That said, we have a lot of options. André and Matt [Goss] have shown they're in great shape for the bunch sprints. André won two stages in the Tour of Poland very recently, and Matt did very well winning a stage in the Tour of Denmark. Then we've got [Michael] Albasini and Peter Velits to take care of the team's options on the climbs. So going into Vattenfalls, HTC-Columbia has the riders with the chance to do very well. Knowing that before a race is good for everybody's confidence.”
Last year’s race was won by the American rider Tyler Farrar (Garmin Transitions), who galloped in ahead of Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank), Gerald Ciolek (Team Milram) and 58 others. The victory was part of a superb run of form by the team, and was followed by three stage victories in the Eneco Tour plus a win on stage 11 of the Vuelta a España.
The 216.4-kilometre event is more demanding than some other one day events due to a series of short steep climbs on the run in towards the finish. However Greipel’s good form could still see him in contention and tussling for the final honours in the ProTour race.
Despite missing the Tour de France, he is six victories ahead of the next best rider in terms of season wins. Irishman David McCann is second with ten triumphs, while Alberto Contador is third with nine. Greipel’s teammate and rival Mark Cavendish has eight wins, including three Tour de France stages.
The two will go head to head next year when Greipel switches to the Omega Pharma Lotto squad.