Patrick Gretsch

Patrick Gretsch
	Patrick Gretsch
To person
Date of birth	April 7, 1987
nation	Germany
discipline	Street
Driver type	Time trial
To the team
Current team	End of career
Societies)
2005	Juniors Bundesliga Team Thuringia
Team (s)
2006–2009 ; 2010–2011 ; 2012–2013 ; 2014–2016	Thuringian Energy Team ; HTC-Highroad ; Team Argos-Shimano ; Ag2r La Mondiale
Most important successes
	World Championship - Time Trial 2008 (U23)
	Last updated: January 12, 2017

Patrick Gretsch (born April 7, 1987 in Erfurt ) is a former German racing cyclist who was active in track and road cycling and specialized in time trials .

career

Gretsch achieved his first international success at the 2004 Junior Track World Championships in Los Angeles when he became vice world champion in the team and third in the individual pursuit together with Sascha Damrow , Stefan Schäfer and Matthias Hahn . In the same year he became German junior champion and time trial world champion in the individual time trial on the road . In 2005 he was four times German junior champion in track and road and took fourth place in the individual and team pursuit twice at the junior world championships.

In the U23 class, Gretsch drove for the German Continental Team Thuringian Energy Team from 2006 to 2009 . In 2008 he won the International Thuringia Tour of the U23, including the time trial. This was followed by the U23 time trial runner-up at the 2008 World Cycling Championships . A year later he became German U-23 time trial champion and achieved the bronze medal in the U23 time trial at the 2009 World Cycling Championships in Mendrioso. He was also the German elite champion in the individual pursuit in 2009.

In 2010 he moved to the UCI ProTeam Columbia-HTC . In his first season for this American team, Gretsch finished second at the German time trial championships in Sangerhausen . He also reached u. a. a second place in the time trial of the Tour of Austria .

In 2011, Gretsch started his first three-week tour of the country with the Giro d'Italia . which he finished in 137th place. He and his team won the team time trial at the beginning of the tour and finished seventh in the final individual time trial. In the same year he won the prologue time trial of the Ster ZLM Toer of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge and the bronze medal of the German time trial championship.

After the dissolution of his HTC-Highroad team at the end of 2011, Gretsch drove for the Argos-Shimano team for two years . He won the Ruta del Sol prologue for this team in 2012 and the silver medal in the German time trial championship in 2013. In 2012 he contested his only Tour de France , which he finished in 141st place and finished seventh in the prologue

In 2013 he moved to the French team Ag2r La Mondiale . He contested the Giro d'Italia four more times, which he was able to finish three more times. He won the team championship with this team in 2014 and was fourth in the time trial in 2015 .

After Gretsch did not receive what he saw as a lucrative offer from a cycling team for the 2017 season , he decided to end his active career.