The German road race differs from many of the other nationals in that it is not a circuit race and you would probably say it is one of the toughest (outside the Latin countries) routes out there.
It has been a strange year for German cycling with two of their star riders Kessler and Wegmann falling foul of late financial problems for their teams.
Outside of these two one cannot help feel that it has been a year of underachievement in the main. Marcus Fothen was an abject failure at the tour (and for most should have been more comfortable in his home tour), Marcus Burghardt so strong in 2010 over cobbles could not quite match his achievements in 2011. Patrick Sinkewitz had a pretty nice season for Auber without quite getting the big result and now he like Kessler and Wegmann may find it difficult to find a protour berth. Perhaps the most encouraging team for German cycling in the Protour is the up and comers B and O with Keinath having a fine Giro and Dominic Klemme developing into a useful all rounder. Meanwhile Gerdemann seemed to work hard with little reward for others in the Phillips outfit.
Down in the CTour Eric Mohs had a fine finish to what had been a fairly barren season from him, the parcours today do not suit him. But it is in the Pokerstars squad where German cycling finds encouragement in cobbler strongman Roger Kluge and sprint hope Degenkolb. Speaking of sprinters Greipal and Ciolek have had very average seasons only showing rare glimpses of their best. Schumacher never really hit the notes he was supposed to, but at least his UBS team have squeezed into the Protour.
These riders make up our favourites today, though with no powerhouse team it looks a very open race indeed. There are plenty of prospective managers looking on, several teams have indicated that German investors are keen to get German cycling back on track.
Six of the 58 riders decide to go on an early attack as soon as we hit the first climb.
By far the strongest of these six is Lucas Schadlich, there is a lot of noises about this youngster being a future TT world champion. He does have difficulty though on the climbs and will be hoping for flatter parcours next year. He is joined in the break by Arndt (Domina Vacanze), Schmeig (Lipton), Humbert (Philips), Baumann (Mercedes) and Barth (Vesuvio).
They find it difficult to break the chains of the peleton in fairly windy conditions, in fact there is an early split in the pacy peleton. Breifly a group of 17 including Haussler and Kloden get detached but it all comes together again on the second climb. Meanwhile three more riders attack Pidun (B and O), Nerz (Pokerstars) and Klinger (Yamaha)... all this does though is pull the breakaway back in and make us Gruppo Compacto.
With the wind still fairly high the pack remain together until the end of this early climbing section where Paul Martens (Jack Wolfskin) decides to have a go on the fifth climb.
He gets a good gap this time with no-one really prepared to sacrifice themselves and chase. The sixth climb draws some even bigger names out as they note that perhaps a breakaway is the key to winning the German nationals.
Leading this 4 man move is none other than the German champion incumbent Marcus Burghardt of Wikipedia, he has some very useful company in cobbler heir apparent Roger Kluge, sprinter who can climb Haussler and outside chance Knees.
A couple of favourites in the pack do band together before that nasty looking penultimate climb and keep the gaps sensible and as we get on the climb Martens has 50 seconds on the chasing four who themselves have about 50 seconds on the peleton.
You'd think that now was really the time for riders like Wegmann, Schumacher, Sinkewitz, Fothen etc. to make their move... but no they suddenly decide to leave the pacing to UBS youngster Muller.
This allows the breakaway riders to start pulling away quite dramitically as 50 seconds becomes three minutes quite quickly. Up front they certainly are not slowing it down, Knees is doing much of the pace work and is catching Martens and also putting Haussler and Kluge into difficulties.
Burghardt though is stuck to his wheel and so Knees eases up and Burghardt tries to come through and get up to Martens but doesn't quite make it. The Jack Wolfskin rider just keeps riding oblivious to the games going on behind and on the descent shows good technique.
He eases to a 90 second lead over Burghardt and Knees, he is rapidly becoming a big contender to win this race. With 35km to go this is the gaps...
Martens leads
Burghardt and Knees at 1.28
Haussler and Kluge at 2.18
44 rider peleton at 8.22
Yes that's right the peleton just cannot seem to organise a proper chase at all. There is one tough climb left but it is hard to see anyone bridging the kind of gap they have to the breaks. Meanwhile Burghardt and Knees are playing dangerous game of cat and mouse as the lose another 20 or so seconds to Martens before this last climb. Realising he really has to go for it now if he wants to defend his title Burghardt puts a hard spurt in at the bottom of the last difficulty.
Knees cannot get onto the Wikipedia riders wheel and Haussler is dropping Kluge who has given a good account today. Back in the peleton the favourites must be hoping for a miracle but the do make their moves. By far the strongest attack is made by Stefan Schumacher.
Also attacking here is Sinkewitz, Fothen, Kessler, Klemme, Keinath, Gerdemann, Mehr-Wenige and Gottfried.
But the climb is not really long enough for the results these favourites want, indeed it was not hard enough for Burghardt to make significant inroads to Martens lead. But Burghardt is a tough rouler and should make gains on Martens in the finale. Still it is going to be touch and go as with 14km to go this is how things stand
Martens leads
Burghardt at 1.12
Knees at 1.40
Haussler at 2.03
Kluge at 2.46
Schumacher at 3.13
Sinkewitz and Kessler at 4.56
Fothen, Klemme, Keinath and Gerdemabb at 4.49
Peleton at 6 minutes
Schumacher is the one making the most dramitic gains but it seems impossible for him to win the championship now. That is between two riders, Martens still looks strong.
The gap is coming down but very slowly with 5km to go the gap is a minute and it comes down by another 20 second in the next three kilometres. It simply isn't enough and Burghardt eases up knowing the game is over.
Paul Martens wins the German RR championships.
It was a pretty good fist of a defence by Burghardt but he will rue not quite catching Martens on that penultimate climb. Behind Schumacher and Haussler catch Knees by the end, Haussler sprinting to third.. isn't he Australian?
The German's have plenty of excellent time triallists, though they found the parcours at the worlds course not to their liking. Marcus Fothen did manage a top ten there, but you rather think that today route (the same as all TT routes) will be suit reigning champion Sebastian Lang.
The Sony Ericsson rider was not selected for the two man worlds team a decision perhaps justified by a weak performance for the squad in the team test. His main rival here will probably be Marcus Kittel from Vesuvio, as it was in last year's championships.
It is windy and it is by no means the three names mentioned that are guaranteed for the win or the podium. UBS pocket powerhouse Schumacher, youngsters Bontenackets, Schladlich, Keinath, Gretcsh and Barth all have solid claims.
The wind reading is at '28' when the first decent shout sets off. UBS have sent their team captain Stefan Schumacher off.
He blasts through the previous best times set by Tony Martin and sets a time just inside 62 minutes by the finish. That is red hot.
Schumacher 17.35 43.15 1.01.57
However the wind speed picks up to a blustery '42' by the time Lipton's Bontenackets sets off.
Indeed these conditions were present for most of Schumachers time trial too, but that extra amount of wind and perhaps slightly better TT skills saw Bontenackets squeeze inside the UBS man's time.
Bontenackets 17.29 43.06 1.01.54
The fact that Bontenackets lost time was that this big wind was not there for longer than 45 minutes and so at the end of his run things had calmed down. Three other contenders closely followed Bontenackets out of the start house, perhaps eager to take advantage of the high wind.
Gretsch (Festina)...
Keinath (B and O)...
and one of the favourites for the overall win Vesuvio's Kittel. All three had that special wind for the first half of their run at least but lost some of that advantage by the end, as a result Gretsch and Keinath could not get inside Schumacher or Bontenackets time.
However Kittel had enough power to become the new leader comfortably
Kittel 17.22 42.51 1.01.31
With the wind slightly easing off then to '33' it looks very good for Kittel here as Schladlich and Barth roll through not able to make any kind of impression.
Neither then able to crack the top three of Kittel, Bontenackets and Schumacher who all were under 62 minutes. The final two big names held out to the end of the start list by their teams were still waiting but the wind was steady at '31'.
First Fothen left on his run.
then the reigning German TT champ Sebastian Lang
They went through the first chrono check and it didn't look good.
(Excuse the ugly control rider in first place the AI likes to wear them out by hammering the course early)
and the special wind that was there for Kittel etc. seems to be doing the job as by the second chrono they are out of it.
Marcus Kittel is starting to relax in the finish area as the wind sock begins to pick up back to that '45/46' reading... could we see late drama. 21 seconds to catch up for Lang seems a very big ask though.
First Fothen comes through.. his times
Fothen 17.38 43.31 1.02.02
Yes he made ground in that finale and he did not have the same amount of wind Lang had...
Into the last kilometer the eyes are on the clock.
Lang 17.30 43.12 and...
1.01.18...
1.01.19...
1.01.20...
1.01.21...
1.01.22...he is close.
1.01.23.. inches away
1.01.24.
Clock stops dead, Lang has defended his crown by seven seconds. Amazing performance in the last 10km there.
