With a strong second place from Christian, we finished the cycling classic around Cologne on Easter Monday. In a photo finish on the banks of the Rhine in Cologne, our all-rounder was defeated by Manuel Kirfel from Team Strassacker, who had won the opening round, by just a tire width. Third after 126 kilometers in the sprint of a breakaway group was Kirfel's teammate Florian Vrecko. Stefan Räth crossed the finish line in fourth place and secured a good result for us. Behind them, last year's winner Daniel Knyss won the sprint of the pursuers and finished eighth.
We wanted to fight for victory and we managed that very well. But you can also clearly see that the top of the German amateur scene is getting stronger and stronger. We are looking forward to an exciting season with many highlights. That's motivation enough and we want to compete for overall victory in all individual classifications and in the team classification.
At the end of the day, we also achieved second place in this ranking, behind the defending champions Team Strassacker and ahead of Team Bürstner-Dümo.
Our two newcomers Christine Göldner and Stefan took first place in their age groups. The Merkur printing veteran Bernd Weinhold won the Master 3 class.
There is hardly any time to rest now. Next Sunday, the second race of the German amateur championship will take place at the Tour d'Energie in Göttingen. And there, too, we want to be at the forefront again.