|
|
STAGE 10: TEAM OF THE DAY: GEROLSTEINER
June 25, 2008
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Gerolsteiner
Registered Nation: Germany
Bicycles: Specialized
Components: Shimano
Key Riders: Markus Fothen, Stefan Schumacher, Bernhard Kohl
Title Sponsors: Gerosteiner is a mineral water company
Hans-Michael Holczer and sports directors Rolf Gelz and Christian Henn founded the team in 1998. Austrian hardman Georg Totschnig joined the team in 2001 and then Italian Davide Rebellin in 2002, both of whom helped make Gerolsteiner a world-class team. With strong results in 2002 the team gained an invitation to the 2003 Tour de France. In 2004 Rebellin had his finest season winning the Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. In the 2005 Tour de France. tough Totschnig won Stage 14 of the Tour, becoming the first Austrian to do so since Max Bulla in 1931. In 2005 the team added American Levi Leipheimer, who would go on to finish sixth in the Tour de France and win the Tour of Germany that season. In 2006 Leipheimer won the Dauphine Libere but finishing a disappointing thirteenth in the Tour de France.
In 2007, Totschnig retired and Levi Leipheimer left, while Stefan Schumacher and Markus Fothen have emerged as solid stage race riders. The team announced in September 2007 that Gerolsteiner will end sponsorship at the end of 2008, so look for Schumacher, Fothen and sprinter Robert "Frosi" Forster
to light it up at this years Tour.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|