Deutschland Tour 2008 - 4

The eight stage Deutschland Tour began on Friday, August 29, in Austria and ends on September 6 in Bremen.

Stage 4 Wiesloch - Mainz (174km)
Stage four saw a number of attacks before a group of 18 went clear after 75km, but was caught at the second climb of the day. This spurred a move by Tom Stubbe (Francaise des Jeux) and Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom) which stayed away for a while and then was caught when the sprinter teams combined to reel them in.

The stage into Mainz ended in a mass gallop to the line won by André Greipel (Team Columbia) and Robbie McEwen (Silence Lotto).

André Greipe said - “I can’t say I was too surprised I managed to win because we’ve got the strongest team here and I’ve got such strong support as a result.” Greipel said afterwards. “But it wasn’t the most straightforward to victories. I had a bit of a rough time with a kilometre to go, there were guys all over the place trying to get through and I nearly crashed.”

“Then in the last 500 metres, there were a couple of traffic islands and a sharp corner, which didn’t make it any easier, either.” “Fortunately Gerald Ciolek guided me through and gave me exactly the lead out I was looking at.” “I accelerated away with about 200 metres to go and got the win.”

1 87 André Greipel, THR 03:59:37
2 35 Robbie McEwen, SIL st
3 57 Robert Förster, GST st
4 98 Mark Renshaw, C.A st
5 48 Graeme Brown, RAB st
6 193 Olaf Pollack, VBG st
7 165 Mirco Lorenzetto, LAM st
8 53 Markus Zberg, GST st
9 82 Gerald Ciolek, THR st
10 17 René Haselbacher, AST st
11 186 Sebastian Siedler, SKS st
12 134 Thomas Kvist, QST st
13 67 Sébastien Chavanel, FDJ st
14 11 Janez Brajkovic, AST st
15 24 Pablo Lastras GCE st
16 152 Björn Schröder, MRM st
17 118 Mauro Da Dalto, LIQ st
18 151 Christian Knees, MRM st
19 194 René Weissinger, VBG st
20 81 Linus Gerdemann, THR st

General Classification
1 81 Linus Gerdemann, THR 17:55:48
2 85 Thomas Lövkvist, THR @ 00:00:17
3 11 Janez Brajkovic, AST @ 00:00:20
4 93 Pietro Caucchioli, C.A @ 00:00:58
5 42 Bauke Mollema, RAB @ 00:01:01
6 26 José Rujano GCE @ 00:01:13
7 12 Daniel Navarro AST @ 00:01:27
8 175 Eros Capecchi, SDV @ 00:01:31
9 113 Andrea Noe, LIQ @ 00:01:31
10 27 Francisco Perez GCE @ 00:02:13
11 71 Haimar Zubeldia EUS @ 00:02:16
12 127 Johann Tschopp, BTL @ 00:02:39
13 52 Markus Fothen, GST @ 00:02:42
14 111 Leonardo Bertagnolli, LIQ @ 00:02:51
15 97 Christophe Le Mevel, C.A @ 00:02:52
16 135 Kevin Seeldrayers, QST @ 00:03:19
17 114 Charles Wegelius, LIQ @ 00:03:22
18 131 Giovanni Visconti, QST @ 00:03:25
19 21 Vladimir Karpets, GCE @ 00:03:28
20 178 Josep Jufre SDV @ 00:03:41

Stages
Prologue Friday, 29th Aug. Kitzbühel (3,6km) Time Trial
1st stage Saturday, 30th Aug. Kitzbühel - Hochfügen (178km) Mountains
2nd stage Sunday, 31st Aug. München - Region Hesselberg (182,6km)
3rd stage Monday, 1st Sept. Herrieden - Wiesloch (214,9km)
4th stage Tuesday, 2nd Sept. Wiesloch - Mainz (174km)
5th stage Wednesday, 3rd Sept. Mainz - Winterberg (218,4km) Mountains
6th stage Thursday, 4th Sept. Bad Fredeburg - Neuss (188,8km)
7th stage Friday, 5th Sept. Neuss - Georgsmarienhütte (214,3km)
8th stage Saturday, 6th Sept. EZF Bremen (34km) Time Trial

Website - www.deutschland-tour.de/