Breaking his arm in a crash at Flèche Wallonne on April 20, T-Mobile's Rolf Aldag made his return to racing at the recent Tour de Suisse, his first race back after almost two months out of competition. The 36 year-old cycling veteran picked one of the most difficult events to get back into the swing of things, but stuck it out all the way to the finish in Ulrichen to be one of only 92 finishers, although describing the stage as "a real killer".
"I felt all along that if I could get over the first easier climbs, then I would also make it over the tougher Alpine climbs," said Aldag on t-mobile-team.com.
A hardened professional of 14 years in the peloton, the last 12 seasons spent with his current team and 10 Tours de France under his belt, Aldag won't be part of the T-Mobile roster for this year's Tour. Instead, he will use his experience in a different capacity at La Grand Boucle, where he will be German public TV station ZDF's resident expert cycling analyst, providing live commentary each day.
"I am looking forward to this. I have ridden ten Tours as a professional cyclist, now I will be looking at the Tour from a completely different perspective," said Aldag.
However, being on television isn't something altogether foreign for the German, besides having being filmed as a rider; he was one of the stars in the recently released cycling film Höllentour (Hell on Wheels), produced by German film-maker and Academy Award-winner, Pepe Danquart.
