Deutschland Tour 2008 - 8

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

Stage 8 - Bremen 34km Time Trial
Team Columbia's Tony Martin won the final stage in Bremen and after the final stage Linus Gerdemann was able consolidate his race lead to claim the general classification.

Gerdemann said - “I’m pleased and relieved because the Tour of Germany was the focus of my comeback from a very hard start to the season.” Gerdemann, crashed and was badly injured in the time trial at Tirreno-Adriatico, fracturing his femur.

“I missed out on the Tour de France because of my injuries, so I pinned everything on being in good shape for the Tour of Germany.”

“Of course I was worried, really worried at times, that I might not be able to recover fully after such a bad injury. But I saw I was in good shape in August when I won in the Tour de L’Ain and in Italy. Plus I always had full support from the team, particularly doctor Helge Riepenhof, and they all helped me to come through. I can’t thank them enough.”

“Every day here in Germany was tough and stressful, from the moment I took the lead, and today was no exception - very windy and rainy, and not at all easy. Having the big mountain stages early on meant you had to be in top form from the word go. There weren’t any hiding places.”

“Fortunately I knew what I had to do on the climb of stage one and when to attack. I had no particular tactics in the time trial, just go all out from start to finish. It worked!”

1 83 Tony Martin THR 39:49.1
2 86 Bert Grabsch THR @ 00:34.3
3 2 Gustav Larsson CSC @ 00:48.3
4 81 Linus Gerdemann THR @ 01:17.3
5 21 Vladimir Karpets GCE @ 01:43.7
6 85 Thomas Lövkvist THR @ 01:52.5
7 172 Raivis Belohvosciks SDV @ 02:23.4
8 11 Janez Brajkovic AST @ 02:31.3
9 157 Dominik Roels MRM @ 02:32.7
10 61 Jussi Veikkanen FDJ @ 02:40.1
11 103 Tanel Kangert ALM @ 02:48.7
12 43 Paul Martens RAB @ 02:54.2
13 12 Daniel Navarro AST @ 02:56.1
14 77 Aitor Hernandez EUS @ 02:56.7
15 141 Maxime Monfort COF @ 02:58.2
16 46 Koos Moerenhout RAB @ 03:05.3
17 72 Markel Irizar EUS @ 03:05.8
18 52 Markus Fothen GST @ 03:08.5
19 155 Peter Velits MRM @ 03:13.1
20 36 Jurgen Van-Den-Broeck SIL @ 03:19.9

General Classification
1 81 Linus Gerdemann, THR 33:25:18
2 85 Thomas Lövkvist, THR @ 00:00:52
3 11 Janez Brajkovic, AST @ 00:01:34
4 12 Daniel Navarro, AST @ 00:03:06
5 93 Pietro Caucchioli, C.A @ 00:03:27
6 26 José Rujano, GCE @ 00:03:35
7 42 Bauke Mollema, RAB @ 00:03:56
8 113 Andrea Noe, LIQ @ 00:04:10
9 175 Eros Capecchi, SDV @ 00:04:44
10 61 Jussi Veikkanen, FDJ @ 00:04:53
11 71 Haimar Zubeldia, EUS @ 00:05:15
12 97 Christophe Le Mevel C.A @ 00:05:24
13 21 Vladimir Karpets, GCE @ 00:05:28
14 52 Markus Fothen, GST @ 00:06:14
15 114 Charles Wegelius, LIQ @ 00:06:36
16 178 POU, Josep SDV @ 00:06:42
17 127 Johann Tschopp, BTL @ 00:07:16
18 192 Andreas Dietziker, VBG @ 00:07:21
19 27 Francisco Perez, GCE @ 00:07:22
20 135 Kevin Seeldrayers, QST @ 00:07:41

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/