Business as normal for two-man Gerolsteiner team

By Gregor Brown in Varese

It is business as normal for Team Gerolsteiner even though the team is down to only two men – Sven Krauss and Johannes Fröhlinger – left in the 91st Giro d'Italia.

"It is an interesting situation. We feel like a very small team in a big, big race," explained 25 year-old Krauss to Cyclingnews at the start of stage 18. However, he pointed out that the team is still working as normal, including setting up Krauss for the sprint, where he finished 11th in Wednesday's finish in Locarno. "We are going to the front and doing the race as normal."

There are not any fights for the best seat on the team bus as Germans Krauss and Fröhlinger to stretch their legs without arguments. "Now we have a lot of space in the team bus!" he laughed. The team's structure is still well in place even with two riders. "It is all here. ... We have our therapists, mechanics, doctors and directeur sportif; everything is normal."

Krauss will take his form from this Giro d'Italia – his fourth – to the GP Triberg-Schwarzwald, where he had a good placing in 2007.

"It has been very hard this year; it has been long transfers and hard stages. The weather has been okay, the second day was a little bit bad and some mountain stages, but it is warm," continued Krauss.

"Normally, after Giro, I have very good form. Last year, one week after I had a fifth place in the GP Triberg-Schwarzwald, it is a very hard mountain race. I will go from here to the Ster Elektrotoer tour, Triberg-Schwarzwald and the German championships, then maybe the Tour de France."