After the Tour stress was over for the Milram team, it continued on the freeway, with a complete closure of the interstate south of Compiègne. The subsequent detours made the riders drive right past the finish line of stage three, where Erik Zabel got second.
As Milram reports on its website, http://www.team-milram.de, the schedule got fairly tight for Ralf Grabsch, Marcel Sieberg, Enrico Poitschke und Erik Zabel, who were supposed to be in Ratingen for the criterium at 17:00. "No chance under those circumstances," declared Marcel Sieberg. Christian Knees was also unlucky, who left with his wife and daughter and hour earlier, but also spent a lot of time in traffic jams. His wife Nathalie revealed that "As we got home, he [Christian] left immediately to go to Ratingen." The good news is that Knees finished second, so the travel didn't affect him too much.
