Gerald Ciolek

U23 world road champion in 2006   German road champion in 2005 3 stage wins Germany Tour 2007 Rhineland -Palatinate tour 2007 Stage win Vuelta a España 2009 Milano- Sanremo 2013

Gerald Ciolek ( born September 19, 1986 in Cologne ) is a German racing driver who has grown up in Pulheim near Cologne. His biggest success was the victory at Milan - Sanremo 2013.

Career

His first big success was the victory in the German road championship in 2005. Doing so, he surprisingly defeated in the final sprint Robert Förster and Erik Zabel and was thus able to secure the title.

His first cycling team was Wiesenhof Akud. As a Professional Continental team, it received wildcard invitations for the ProTour race Vattenfall cyclassics and Germany tour, which Ciolek could dispute this race.

In 2006 he made ​​further good results. First, he was beaten by inches round by Stefano Garzelli at the half classics to the Henninger Tower and landed in front of Erik Zabel, Petacchi and Danilo Hondo. When ProTour race Vattenfall cyclassics he came in fifth place. On 4 August 2006 he won his first ProTour race when he won the third stage of the Germany tour in 2006 in a mass sprint in front of Erik Zabel. At the World Championships in Salzburg Ciolek was able to achieve the hitherto biggest success of his career in September 2006.

For the years 2007/2008 Ciolek signed a contract with the German ProTeam T -Mobile. For this team he won during the Lower Saxony tour 2007 a ​​stage in a bunch sprint for themselves. In May he won the overall title of the Rhineland -Palatinate Tour. To this end, he also won the points classification and took the jersey of best young rider. In the Tour of Austria, he won two stages in his favor and won the sprint classification. On his highlight of the season, the Tour of Germany, he won three stages. The day after the Germany tour, he was able to improve his fifth place from last year by two places and was the third of the Vattenfall cyclassics. While preparing for the World Cycling Championship in late September in Stuttgart, he won on his 21st birthday, the first stage of the three - nation tour.

After the withdrawal of Deutsche Telekom named the team after the 2008 based operator of Team High Road. Ciolek required in the year for a long time until the first success. In the Tour of Bavaria, he was able to win two stages. In July he was also his first Tour de France ride in which his team-mate Mark Cavendish dominated the sprints. Nevertheless, he took two second and third places. In Germany Tour 2008 could Ciolek, who had achieved most of his success in the mass sprint to decide the ending with a mountain top finish in Winterberg fifth stage itself.

In the years 2009 and 2010 he drove for the German Team Milram, where he was to take over the captaincy next Linus Gerdemann. His greatest achievement in this period was the sprint victory in the second stage of the Vuelta a España in 2009. During this time he was also victorious at the Trofeo Calvia and a stage of the Tour of Bavaria, but how the team could total, which at the end of the 2010 season broke up, do not pose essential accents.

In 2011, he joined the Belgian Quick Step Cycling Team. In his first season at Quickstep him no victory was achieved in a bicycle race of the UCI calendar. However, he finished second in the mass sprint of the German road championship and the World Tour race Vattenfall Cyclassic. Its versatility he presented in September at the hilly World Tour race in Canada demonstrated: at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, he determined the race in a breakaway group with and finally finished ninth. In the sprint of the Followers box he was twelfth of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. His winless time Ciolek finished in February 2012 on the fourth stage of the Tour of Algarve, which he won in a bunch sprint.

In 2013, Ciolek joined the South African team MTN Qhubeka, which started as a Professional Continental team for the first time this year. It is intended to provide both wins, as to pass on his experience to the young African riders. In the three days of West Flanders, he was with the support of his team win the final stage in the sprint and thus secure the team 's first victory in the new category. On March 17, 2013 Ciolek won the third German by Rudi Altig and Erik Zabel the spring classic Milan - Sanremo.

Achievements

Survey

  • Around the Henninger Tower
  • Two stages Trofeo Karlberg
  • A stage Lower Saxony Tour
  • German road champion
  • Three stages and Sprint Classification Tour de Hongrie
  • A stage MainFranken Tour
  • A stage Germany Tour
  • Around the old town of Nuremberg
  • U23 world champion street in Salzburg
  • A stage Lower Saxony Tour
  • Rhineland -Palatinate Tour
  • Two stages and points classification Tour of Austria
  • Three stages Tour of Germany
  • A stage 3 Country Tour
  • Two stages of Tour of Bavaria
  • A stage Germany Tour
  • Trofeo Calvia
  • A stage in the Vuelta a España
  • A stage Tour of Bavaria
  • A stage in Tour of Algarve
  • Team time trial Tour de l' Ain
  • A stage of Three Days of West Flanders
  • Milan - Sanremo
  • A stage Tour of Bavaria
  • A stage in Tour of Austria
  • A stage in the Tour of Britain
  • A stage in the Vuelta a Andalucía

Placement in the Grand Tours

259569
de