Germany tour 2007

Final result after the 9th stage
winner	Jens Voigt	30:57:21 h (41.753 km / h)
Second	Levi Leipheimer	+ 1:57 min
Third	David López García	+ 2:10 min
Fourth	Leonardo Bertagnolli	+ 3:05 min
fifth	Robert Gesink	+ 3:15 min
Sixth	Chris Anker Sørensen	+ 4:06 min
seventh	Maxime Monfort	+ 5:22 min
Eighth	Laurens ten Dam	+ 5:26 min
Ninth	Gustav Erik Larsson	+ 6:08 min
Tenth	Davide rebel	+ 6:16 min
Scoring	Erik Zabel	98 P.
Second	Gerald Ciolek	88 P.
Third	Danilo Napolitano	62 P.
Mountain scoring	Niki Terpstra	23 p.
Second	David López García	15 p.
Third	Jens Voigt	12 p.
Young talent evaluation	Robert Gesink	31:00:36 h
Second	Chris Anker Sørensen	+ 0:51 min
Third	Maxime Monfort	+ 2:07 min
Team evaluation	Team CSC	93:02:25 h
Second	Discovery Channel	+ 6:23 min
Third	Caisse d'Epargne	+ 6:32 min

The 9th Deutschland Tour was a bike race and took place from August 10th to 18th, 2007. It started in Saarbrücken , on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Saarland as a German state. As in previous years, the tour led through Austria again . This is how a stage ended in Sölden in the Ötztal . The tour ended after 1,292.5 km on August 18 in Hanover . In addition, for the first time since the tour was reintroduced in 1999, there was a team time trial , which the 23 eligible teams tackled on the second stage.

The Austrian Professional Continental Team Elk Haus-Simplon sued for its start and took part in the race due to an injunction from the Hamburg Regional Court.

course

1st stage

Robert Förster after winning the first stage

On the first section around the Saarland and around the Saarland capital Saarbrücken , the three runaways Maarten den Bakker , Matej Mugerli and Philipp Ludescher separated after 34 kilometers . They quickly increased their lead and were now more than ten minutes ahead of the peloton before it took up the chase under the direction of the teams Gerolsteiner , CSC , T-Mobile and Milram . Ludescher then had to let his two rivals go 61 kilometers from the finish, which meant that only a duo was at the head of the race, but they were overtaken by the peloton nine kilometers from the finish. In the subsequent mass sprint of the field, Robert Förster secured the day's victory. Danilo Napolitano and Erik Zabel followed on the other places in the daily standings .

The lead in the overall standings was taken by day winner Robert Förster, two seconds ahead of Maarten den Bakker, who had received various time credits as an outlier. Förster also secured the points jersey and won a stage on a Germany tour for the first time. Matej Mugerli took the lead in the mountain classification and Philipp Ludescher in the junior classification. The team standings were led by Bouygues Télécom .

Overview of the stages

2nd stage

The second stage, which was held in a team time trial , the first in the history of the tour, around Bretten , located in Kraichgau , was won by the CSC team, which started under a Danish license, under the leadership of the reigning time trial world champion Fabian Cancellara . He and his seven teammates, including last year's winner Jens Voigt and overall runner-up in the Giro d'Italia Andy Schleck , completed the 42.2-kilometer course, which was very wavy and selective for a team time trial, in a time of 51:40 minutes in the end 25 seconds before Discovery Channel with Levi Leipheimer and 55 seconds before the Gerolsteiner team .

In the overall standings, Jens Voigt took the lead with one second ahead of his team-mates after being credited with a time bonus of one second in an intermediate sprint on the first stage. There was no change in the points and mountains classification. Voigt's team-mate Andy Schleck secured the lead in the junior ranking, and Team CSC took the lead in the team ranking.

3rd stage

Main field at the Ruhestein with Jens Voigt in yellow

On the third stage from Pforzheim to Offenburg through the northern Black Forest with two mountain ratings in the first category, an outlier duo, consisting of Niki Terpstra and Christian Leben, was at the top. After driving about 15 kilometers they broke away from the peloton on a short descent and were able to extend their lead to around five minutes before the peloton, in the form of Team CSC, took up the chase and stabilized the gap.

When the first ascent to Allerheiligen started, the lead had increased to 6:30 minutes and Leben could no longer follow the pace of his competitor Terpstra. Terpstra reached the summit at Allerheiligen with a 30 second lead on life and only about three minutes left on the main field. Immediately after the descent from Allerheiligen there was an eight-kilometer ascent to the refuge with a gradient of 18 percent in some cases. There Jon Bru and Matthias Russ , as well as Amaël Moinard separated from the field and shortly after the culmination point, 45 kilometers from the finish, formed a new lead quartet with Terpstra, who had a lead of about 1:15 minutes on the field, which had meanwhile broken up into two parts . On the last small climb, ten kilometers from the finish near Bottenau , Terpstra and Bru fell back into the main field, while behind the leading duo a six-man chasing group with Jens Voigt and Davide Rebellin had formed. They caught up with the leading duo six kilometers from the finish line, but were then overtaken by the peloton four kilometers later. From this out, Erik Zabel secured his 13th success on the Germany Tour in front of José Joaquín Rojas Gil and Bradley McGee .

Jens Voigt remained at the top of the overall standings, as did his teammate Andy Schleck in the junior ranking and Team CSC in the team ranking . Daily winner Erik Zabel took the lead in the points classification and Niki Terpstra took the lead in the mountain classification.

4th stage

The fourth stage took the riders 183.8 km from Singen to Sonthofen. Only after the first sprint classification at racing km 76.1 did two drivers manage to break away. Piet Rooijakkers and Mariusz Witecki were overtaken shortly before the second mountain classification. A top group of three managed to pull away on the final climb. In Sonthofen there was finally a sprint between the leading trio, which the Italian Damiano Cunego won ahead of Davide Rebellin and David López García . Five seconds later, the first group of pursuers crossed the finish line with the favorites for overall victory.

Jens Voigt successfully defended his yellow jersey. Zabel had to hand over his sprint jersey to Gil. Niki Terpstra continued to lead the mountain classification. Chris Anker Sørensen took over the white jersey from Andy Schleck , who left the tour.

5th stage

The fifth section took the drivers from Sonthofen to the Rettenbachferner near Sölden in Austria . The arrival on the Rettenbachferner, 2,631 meters above sea level , was the highest mountain arrival of the UCI ProTour 2007 . After 30 kilometers, the first breakaway group formed around the Russian professional cyclist Vladimir Jefimkin , whose lead was up to four minutes at times. The outliers were caught up by the leadership of the Discovery Channel team . As the last outlier, Jefimkin was made nine kilometers from the finish. The day's victory was secured by David López García, who reached the finish twelve seconds ahead of overall leader Jens Voigt. Third place went to Robert Gesink from the Netherlands .

6th stage

The sixth stage led the field of drivers after the two difficult stages of the previous days from Längenfeld to Kufstein in the German neighboring country Austria . After a turbulent start to the race, Wolfgang Murer and Paul Martens pulled away from the field at race kilometer 34 . Although Martens was only 10:51 behind overall leader Jens Voigt, the duo quickly moved away and increased their lead to over eight minutes. However, once the peloton took up the chase, the lead decreased just as quickly before they were overtaken with eight kilometers to go. In the subsequent mass sprint, the former German champion Gerald Ciolek secured his first stage win ahead of Danilo Napolitano and José Joaquín Rojas Gil .

For the first time in the course of the tour, there were no changes to the top positions in the individual and team evaluations.

7th stage

The seventh and at the same time longest stage, the riders from Kufstein , Austria, back to Germany. The 192.2 kilometer stage ended in Regensburg . The race started uneasily and after 20 kilometers a five-man leading group was able to break away, whose member Florian Stalder was meanwhile in the virtual yellow jersey. After fleeing more than 160 kilometers, the outliers before the finish were caught by the field in which the CSC team of overall leader Jens Voigt set the pace. The day's victory in the mass sprint was achieved by Gerald Ciolek from the T-Mobile team , who had already won the day before. He crossed the finish line ahead of Erik Zabel and José Joaquín Rojas Gil .

Jens Voigt was able to defend his lead of 33 seconds over David López García.

8th stage

The eighth stage was a 33.1 km long individual time trial around the Franconian Fürth . Overall leader Jens Voigt secured the day's victory, who crossed the finish line 15 seconds ahead of László Bodrogi in the fight against the clock . Third place went to the American Levi Leipheimer .

Jens Voigt was able to extend the lead in the overall standings to almost two minutes with his victory over Levi Leipheimer, who was second in the overall standings and third for the day, who pushed David López García to third place in the overall standings. In the team ranking, Discovery Channel took second place.

9th stage

Breakaway group in Pattensen shortly before the sprint classification

The ninth and last stage led over 143 kilometers from Einbeck to Hanover . A four-man breakaway group with local hero Grischa Niermann was set shortly after the start of the last of five laps in the city of Hanover, 8.5 kilometers from the finish. The result was a mass sprint, which T-Mobile driver Gerald Ciolek won. Erik Zabel finished second.

Jens Voigt crossed the finish line in 68th place and defended the overall leader's yellow jersey. He is the first driver in the history of the tour to win it twice. His first triumph was in 2006 . There were no more changes in the other ratings either. Erik Zabel was able to win the points classification for the seventh time. His teammate Niki Terpstra secured the mountain classification and Robert Gesink won the junior classification introduced in 2006. Team CSC achieved the best team result.

Stages

Stages	Day	Start finish	km	Stage winner	Overall leader
1st stage	August 10	Saarbrücken - Saarbrücken	183.7	Robert Forster	Robert Forster
2nd stage	August 11th	Bretten ( MZF )	042.2	Team CSC	Jens Voigt
3rd stage	12. August	Pforzheim - Offenburg	181.8	Erik Zabel	Jens Voigt
4th stage	13 August	Singing - Sonthofen	183.8	Damiano Cunego	Jens Voigt
5th stage	August 14th	Sonthofen - Sölden ( Rettenbachferner ) ( AUT )	157.6	David López García	Jens Voigt
6th stage	15th of August	Längenfeld (AUT) - Kufstein (AUT)	175.0	Gerald Ciolek	Jens Voigt
7th stage	August 16	Kufstein (AUT) - Regensburg	192.2	Gerald Ciolek	Jens Voigt
8th stage	17th August	Fürth ( EZF )	033.1	Jens Voigt	Jens Voigt
9th stage	18th of August	Einbeck - Hanover	143.1	Gerald Ciolek	Jens Voigt

Jerseys in the course of the tour

The table shows the wearer of the respective jersey during the individual stage or the leaders of the respective overall ranking on the evening of the previous day.

stage	Yellow jersey	Red jersey	Dotted jersey	White jersey	Team evaluation
2nd stage	Robert Forster	Robert Forster	Matej Mugerli	Philipp Ludescher	Bouygues Telecom
3rd stage	Jens Voigt			Andy Schleck	Team CSC
4th stage		Erik Zabel	Niki Terpstra
5th stage		José Joaquín Rojas Gil		Chris Anker Sørensen
6th stage				Robert Gesink
7th stage
8th stage		Erik Zabel
9th stage
winner	Jens Voigt	Erik Zabel	Niki Terpstra	Robert Gesink	Team CSC

Effects of the doping discussion

Due to the recurring doping cases in professional cycling, which recently caused the public television broadcasters to cancel the broadcast of the Tour de France , the race was particularly shaped with regard to the anti-doping fight. During the Germany Tour 2007, more doping controls were carried out than ever before in this race. For the first time, the chaperone control system was used throughout. These supervisors accompany the professional cyclists after crossing the finish line up to the doping control.

Web links

Commons : Deutschland Tour 2007  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Germany Tour 2007 on cycling4fans.de