Nineteen Germans will start the Tour this Saturday in London. This new record, up by two from the previous best, shows that Germany is still benefiting from the Jan Ullrich-boom, even with the current negative headlines.
Team Gerolsteiner only has two foreigners in their line-up for the Tour, but Austrians Bernhard Kohl and Peter Wrolich at least speak the same language. Milram sends five German and T-Mobile four. Astana (Klöden), CSC (Voigt) and Rabobank (Niermann) have one German each in their formations.
Erik Zabel of Milram is the senior, starting his 13th Tour and hoping to advance his number of stage wins (12) to the same margin. Seven professional will make their debut in the French race. Stefan Schumacher and Heinrich Haussler of Gerolsteiner are especially given good chances to start their Tour careers with a stage win.
Germans at Le Tour
Gerolsteiner: Markus Fothen, Robert Förster, Heinrich Haussler, Sven Kraus, Ronny Scholz, Stefan Schumacher, and Fabian Wegmann.
Milram: Ralf Grabsch, Christian Knees, Enrico Poitschke, Marcel Sieberg and Erik Zabel.
T-Mobile: Marcus Burghardt, Linus Gerdemann, Bert Grabsch, Patrik Sinkewitz
Astana: Andreas Klöden
CSC: Jens Voigt
Rabobank: Grischa Niermann
