Hey guys,
at the moment my boys and I are enjoying the portuguese sun for a minute, after having a long 5 days through the district of Alentejo.
Silvio and Maxi were our men for the results; Maxi for the flat finishes while Silvio should take it uphill. My plan was to bring us the first jersey of the season and go for the King of the Mountains jersey.
First stage was nearly flat with some small hills where KoM points were available. So I went into the break,
taking the mountains sprints
and even a second on a bonus soprint. We were caught pretty early, but I could hold on to the finish line. On the uphill sprint Silvio was our man, and placed himself sadly on P4, just missing out on the podium and victorious Antonio Carvalho (W52).
The second stage was slightly harder, I tried the best to defend my jersey, went into the break and took both mountain sprints against Torres and Silva. Our main man in the peloton had very bad luck, Werda got caught out on the cllmbs and Herklotz crashed two times. Luckily Silvio made his way back to the peloton, while our Trio surprisingly could hang on for a long time. On the last small uphill drag I attacked my breakaway companions, riding on my own for the last seven flat kilometers. As the Flamme Rouge came near I somehow had a slight advantage, and thought about a victory for the first time.
But at the end it was a heartbreak on the line for me; the sprinting bunch caught me out with less than 100 meters to go.
I still finished sixth, and went up to fith in GC with all the bonus seconds I got, but still was damn sad I couldn´t deliver on the last few meters, when I stepped up the podium and recieved the mountains jersey from the ladies.
The next stage was hard work; I followed again a big break with tired legs, but still managed to extend my lead in the mountains classification.
I sat back on as soon as the points were given, and relaxed in the peloton while Silvio and Maxi went for stage glory. At the end of the day Herklotz came in 5th and Werda 6th, while Vangstad took the victory.
Similar to stage 3 the next day had a big break. Fonte really tried to rip that jersey of me, and with his teammate he made it really hard for me to take the maximum of the points. Another time I wasn´t interested in a breakaway victory, additionally Maxi felt really good. He came well over the hills and finished second on the day,
while I was still our best GC rider sitting on P5 just by collecting bonus seconds. I tried myself a finesseur attack at the end of the day when the pace suddenly went low, but this was more to up the pressure on the sprinters teams for Maxi. And you know, I'm not exactly the finesseur type of rider
The last day was just to celebrate our first jersey, I sat back all day with the guys, even didn´t have to work for Maxis sprint. He recieved another Top10 for us on the line, and I took our first jersey of the year!
To celebrate this, Jochen decided to change the destination of our team bus. We will enjoy one day or two on the coast of spain while touring back to Germany.
Bis Bald, Andy
Spoiler
This series will go faster again, it was a busy week for me (no live Tour de France )
Hey guys,
Just a short update today, as we are packing our things for our next trip. Our destination is France, where we will have two flat/hilly stage races, starting with the Circuit des Ardennes.
By the way I had the chance to sit in our car while Silvio took the first win of the season at the u23 race GP Piva in Italy.
Now some pressure is off our guys, surely it will help us racing through the north of France. Bis Bald, Andy
Hey guys,
an awful lot of work had to be done over the two weeks. We´ve been to France, two races had to be dealt with. Circuit des Ardennes was mostly hilly, while the Tour du Loir was really flat. Both races he had the same plan, Silvio goes for the harder sprints and I try to take on the Mountains Classification, as it worked in Portugal.
Silvio had some good results, getting a GC Top 5 in the Circuit des Ardennes (despite Cofidis had a very strong lineup there (Soupe, Edet, Mate, Navarro) as well as some Top10 stage results at the Tour du Loir (best was a P4). And look how nicely I did in hunting the french polka-dot jerseys.
Circuit des Ardennes International
Tour du Loir
Hopefully I can come back with some bigger polka-dots later in France. Who knows what time can bring.
For us it's now preparing for eastern european racing until I come back to Germany for the Garmin-Velothon in Berlin.
Hey guys,
starting up we had kind of a training camp, to prepare for the big german races. The last bit of form should be built up on some punchy hills.
Additionally two eastern european races were on our schedule. Firstly there was the GP Dyachenko, where we did pretty bad. I somehow managed to get a P10 feeling not really good, and it wasn't better with my teammates.
The Baltyk-Karkonosze Tour went much bettter. The first four flat stages were not in my interests. But stage five attracted myself as it was a short mountain time trial. As it´s one of the harder climbs on lower level I really thought to have a good chance of taking this. At the end of the day I was really disgusted by my result, losing over a minute on 9 kilometers and finishing only thirteenth.
So I tried something on the short stage 6; the only 80 kms long, steady up and down without any steep sections. I attacked time after time, starting even in the first half of the race. But there was no chance to come away. CCC pulled me back everytime. so I decided to ride the shit out of myself to bring Silvio to the fore. He finished off what I tried, finishing fourth in both the stage and the GC.
Now the show can really start, with Bayern-Rundfahrt, Garmin-Velothon Berlin and Rund um Köln coming up. I will ride in Berlin and Köln, missing out the Bayern-Rundfahrt.
Hey guys,
today I´m writing again from our central point in Gelsenkirchen. Our team has now three big German races behind us.
The first one, the Bayern Rundfahrt was a 2.HC race. Jochen invited me once again to the team car, and I could coach the young team, captained by Kämna. Sadly Silvio was ill and Maxi not in Top-Form, so we came there without our three captains. Young U23-WorldTTchampion Kämna planned to take on the time trial, where he achieved P14. This was our best stage result her, best man on GC was Backofen finishing on 43.
Our chances shouldn´t be better at the Garmin Velothon through Berlin, being really flat all the time. I attacked a couple of times and made it to the breakaway, just to build up some race hardness and bring our team some TV-minutes. In my attemped I joined Dron, Verona and de la Parte.
But obviously we couldn´t make it through, getting caught over 20 km before the finsish line. After that I lifted my legs, while somethin amazing happened at the fore. Preben van Hecke finished off a finesseur attack to surprise the croud with an amazing solo victory. Van der Sande took the sprint for minor places, best German rider was young Willy Willwohl on P6. As Maxi was out of position Lennard took his chances and sprinted for P11 at the end.
Bridging the time between the races I had a nice birthday, visiting Luxembourg with my family. We even had time to meet up with Frank there. But directly after that the preperation for the race around Cologne began.
As I did the whole season I was the one to attackearly, while Maxi and Silvio should stay in the peloton and sprint for places. My group was founded on the first climb and contained Wegmann and Amaro.
We had a great ride, but were caught by a group of twenty riders 10 kilometers defore the finish. Sadly no teammate of me was in there, so I had to ride for myself. On the flat it´s really not running for me for the moment, but this time I could deliver. I just missed out the Top 10, but an 11th place on a as flat categorized 1.1 race is really not the worst result. Dylan Theuns took the victory of the 25 rider group.
Next stop for us is the Oberösterreich Rundfahrt (2.2), and I´m feeling better than ever this year after the last race. Hopefully we can deliver there!
Hey guys,
I'm done.
3 days of racing are left behind now. And it was crucial for me. The 2.2 race started with two more or less flat stages - both won by A.Kragh Andersen. Maxi was our sprint captain, and he managed to ride in the Top5 two times. I tried myself on the second stage as the end was down- and uphill, and surprisingly managed to get a Top10 stage result.
Stage 3 was the really interesting one. Really hilly, with some longer climbs and steep sections. Although the second half of the stage was not as hard a the first half, we decided that I got later this time, being the clear captain due to Silyios abstinence.
Racing was calm, the break got caught before the final climb began with 13 km to go. 3,9 km, 7,9% average gradient. I decided to attack from the bottom of the climb. Only Belda managed to respond to my attack, but I pushed on as I knew I´m clearly not the strongest when the climb is over. He couldn´t hold my wheel for long, so I went solo over the top.
Having a gap of around a minute I dragged myself down the hill all on my own, riding a rediculous pace. By I wanted this first win so damn hard as I pushed on and finally no one could stop me today.
While celebrating the victory I realized that I even extended my lead to one and a half minutes over three chasers, Pöstlberger, Huffman and Belda. They could only go for minor places, while for me already the preperation for the ceremony started. While stepping up the podium I even realized Jochen Hahn saying that we will have a nice little party afterwards, what made me even smile ontop.
On the podium my thoughts were around the victory, and what great victories I had in the past. Now I'm thirty years of age and more hungry than ever to come back to my old form or get even better. A 2.2 GC might be the first step to reach out for glory again...
Hey guys,
a big decision has to be made. You know I only signed a one-year contract and soon it´s expiring. Now I need to know what to do, as I surprisingly got offers from all three divisions. For the moment I think it might be the best to sign again with Stölting, but if you would like to see me somewhere else here are the options to choose from. VOTE HERE!
If you want me to contact another team please comment.
Hey guys,
as we are heading towards the end of June, the national championships were on our table. Strange to ride the German championships for the first time.
Staring up was the time trial, and as you know time trialling is not the best thing in my skillset. But with Nils, Lennard and Silvio we had three men to target the top 10. Highly notable is that Tony Martin is suffering from an injury and not there to defend his title.
My turn was very early. I had a good ride,
finishing 53rd of 60 participants and only losing three minutes in 44km. Kämna and Herklotz finished on 13 and 14, but Politt had a very good ride, being thirs best on the last checkpoint. But our young man totally lost it on the last part, falling behind to place 17.
At least Nikias Arndt was the winner, beating young Maxi Schachmann by just one second. Patrick Gretsch completed the podium.
Two days later we were taking on the championships on the street. Lennard once again went on the attack and joined a couple of riders. Bora and Sieberg chased, but really didn´t put much effort in it, so early on the day it was pretty clear that the group of 3 would take the victory on the pan-flat day. Giant just refused to do anything, and when Lennards podium was secured Silvio and I went on the attack just to see if anyone would follow there. Two men from Bora, Burghardt and Arndt went with us, and we distanced the peloton by a lot aswell.
While we battled for the fourth place (Silvio attacked, I sat back), Upfront they fought for the victory. At least Mathias Plarre from the Leopard Developement Team took the sensational victory.
Lennard could only achieve the silver medal.
Behind in our group Silvio took P4 solo. Later Burghardt came in in front of me, followed by the group of three lea by Matzka.
It was a great day despite missing the gold medal, but placing 3 men in the Top6 is enormous, especially looking at the points we achieved for the CQ-Ranking. We are still miles away from the promotion zone, but earlier or later we would love to rise up!
At the moment I am the leader of our team with 96 points in the GC, closely followed by Herklotz and Kämna with around 65.
Let´s extend our lead as best German conti-team and
Bis Bald, Andy
By the way, it seems like MTN-Qhubeka will be the choice. It's not decided whether MTN-Qhubeka & LottoNL-Jumbo will ride on PCT- or WT-level next year.
Time to vote is until the next update of Andy flies in :)
Hey guys,
over the last days I - you - have made a big decision. After just one year we will leave Team Stölting to sign with Bora Argon 18.
The team will give me the chance to ride many more mountain races, and battle with other riders with higher quality. I´m very thankful for that and won´t complain if I have a helping role in the team at first.
Despite the change of my cycling jersey I will still continue together my training group with Kämna, Herklotz and Backofen, which I promised to Jochen Hahn as I told him that I will sign with Bora.
Everything more about my future will be discussed after the season, there are still the GP Kranj and the Münsterland Giro to ride. Of course I will try to have a good result on my last races for Stölting.
Covilha, 1.4.2015 
)
Blois, 20.4.2015 
Gelsenkirchen, 26.7.2014 
Steyr, 21.6.2015 
Luxembourg, 24.6.2015 
