Burghardt to Stuttgart

Third year professional Marcus Burghardt is preparing for his second nomination to the World Championships, but this year he expects to start the race. He was nominated in 2005, but was a reserve and he did not ride.

The 24 year-old of T-Mobile had a good neo-pro year in 2005 but a knee injury last year hurt his season. He had to fight to get a contract for this year but promptly rewarded his team when he came into his own and won Gent-Wevelgem, establishing himself as T-Mobile's new hope for the Classics. 'Burgi' rode the Tour de France this year for the first time, finishing 127th, nearly three and half hours down.

His last race was the Regio Tour, where he finished 46th. Nevertheless, he was satisfied with it. "Overall, the Regio Tour was successful for me because I need this preparation for the next races. The legs are good and I never had the feeling that I was in difficulty," he wrote on marcus-burghardt.blog.ch.

"Now I'm off to my next races, first in Brittany in northern France, and then to the Hessen Rundfahrt. I want to get a stage win there. Well, and then comes Stuttgart. Yes, you read it right, I will start for Germany in the world's road race the end of September."