Ralf Grabsch

Ralf Grabsch 2010

Ralf Grabsch at a race in 2006

Ralf Grabsch (born April 7, 1973 in Lutherstadt Wittenberg ) is a former German cyclist , sports director and German U23 national coach since 2012.

Cyclist

Ralf Grabsch grew up in Seegrehna near Lutherstadt Wittenberg, where he also encouraged his younger brother Bert to go cycling. At SC DHfK Leipzig , Ralf Grabsch once drove up to the men's class. He then moved to RG Hamburg from coach Peter Becker. As a junior in 1990, he finished third overall at the Trofeo Karlsberg . At the side of Jan Ullrich he achieved international success as early as 1994. So he won a stage of the peace run and took second place in the individual ranking behind his teammate Jens Voigt . In the same year he drove to the bronze medal with the German World Cup four on the road .

In 1996 he received a contract with Team Cologne and won the Hessen Tour with this team . Three years later, he moved to Team Telekom , where he fulfilled the role of team helper . After wearing the Telekom jersey for four years, he returned to the site of his first successes in 2003. As a member of the Wiesenhof team , Ralf Grabsch only narrowly missed a day's victory in the 2003 and 2004 peace trips. After the 2008 season, Grabs retired from active cycling.

Sports director and national coach

The Milram team remained grave robbers as a sports director and remained - most recently as director of sport - there until the dissolution of the team at the end of the 2010 season for the German Cycling Federation (BDR), he was also since 2009 as sports director of the elite team active in the UCI Road World Championships . At the beginning of the 2012 season, he took over the post of national coach of the U23 national team of the BDR.