Rolf Aldag
Rolf Aldag ( born August 25, 1968 in Beckum ) is a sports manager and former German professional cyclist.
Career as an active athlete
Rolf Aldag was a versatile and fast hard driver, who was appreciated as a good helper team with great tactical sense. Also on the train he was successful, he won eight times, among other things, the Six Days in Dortmund, twice in Berlin.
After successes as an amateur (including WM- Third and Fifth streets with the quad, 1989 and 1990 ), he joined in 1991 by his club team RC Olympia Dortmund turned professional.
He began his professional career in 1991 with the team Helvetia -La Suisse, in 1993 he moved to Team Telekom. He drove several large tours on the side of Erik Zabel and Jan Ullrich. Alone at the Tour de France, he participated ten times, six times, he started at the Vuelta a España, once at the Giro d'Italia. In particular, he was a member of the 1997 Tour de France Team Team Telekom, which won first place overall with Jan Ullrich, the green jersey with Erik Zabel and the victory in the team competition.
A special relationship connected him with the classic Paris -Roubaix, a race that he loved not, because: " Anyone who claims that he loves it, says bullshit ," Rolf Aldag judges Paris -Roubaix, because: " Actually, that's bullshit and no cycling, but modern Gladiatorentum. " Although he was entrusted with helper tasks, he was also placed three times in the top ten.
In the 2003 Tour de France he went on the heavy seventh stage from Lyon to Morzine an excellent race when he only Richard Virenque was beaten. As second in the mountains classification, he was allowed to drive the following famous stage to L' Alpe d' Huez in the polka dot jersey as the leader in the mountain classification, as the leader in this rating Virenque already wore the yellow jersey of the overall leader.
His last international road race he ran in October 2005 at the Tour of Lombardy. In the following winter he played in Berlin his last six-day race.
A few months after the end of his career as a professional cyclist Rolf Aldag ran the Hamburg Marathon in April 2006, a time of 2:42:54 in the marathon distance of 42.195 kilometers. The plan to run the marathon resulted from a bet out with his friend and advisor Wolfgang Berrens.
When Ironman Lanzarote, which is currently regarded as the toughest Ironman in the series, Aldag reached on 20 May 2006, a time of 10:22:14. On the hardest bike course all Ironmanveranstaltungen (180 km, 2500 meters in altitude with often strong winds ) included the professional triathlete and former owner of the route cup record Thomas Hellriegel and former professional cyclist and teammate Kai Hundertmarck among its competitors. Aldag qualified with his time for the Ironman Hawaii in 2006, where he took up but not because he had trained professional reasons too little.
Aldag ended his career as an active athlete on 29 April 2006 with an aligned from his hometown club farewell race, which was attended by many famous riders like Erik and Jens Voigt Zablel. The route of the race track race was the same as in Aldags first race, where he was a 12 -year-old finished sixth and won the following year.
Sports Manager
After Aldag first in the communication Management of T -Mobile initially worked after his sports career, he was 1 November 2006 new sports director of Team T -Mobile. Together with team manager Bob Stapleton he replaced the former management team of Olaf Ludwig and Mario Kummer, after the sponsor T -Mobile in connection with the doping scandal Fuentes lost confidence in the former sports management. The team, which was renamed after the withdrawal of the sponsor in 2007, in Team High Road, after Aldags statements should combine active avoidance doping with successes and was until dissolved after the 2011 season one of the most successful in international road cycling.
On October 3, 2011 it was announced that Andrew Messick in his role as CEO of World Triathlon Corporation Rolf Aldag named as Managing Director Germany. In Aldags jurisdiction the prestigious event Ironman Frankfurt fell.
The end of 2012 ended Aldag his activities as manager of the World Triathlon Corporation for personal reasons and moved back into the sport of cycling as a sport and development manager at Omega Pharma- Quick Step.
Doping confession
In the course of doping confessions of Bert Dietz, Christian Henn, Brian Holm and Rolf Aldag, Udo Bölts also regular EPO doping was at a specially convened press conference on the subject on 24 May 2007, in the admitted Erik Zabel doping, too. In part, he splashed EPO itself Aldag admitted therefore that he had lied to the public for years. Team manager Bob Stapleton announced that Aldag should continue to work as sports director. The number of admissions was triggered by the revelations of Jef D' Hont nurse in his published in April 2007 book " Memoires van een wieler - verzorger " ( "Memories of a cyclist - keeper " ) and the subsequent publication of the book wide media coverage.
Others
Together with his teammates, he received in the year of tour victory of Jan Ulrich 1997 Bambi Media Award and was honored with the Silver Laurel Leaf.
In the 2003 Tour de France, the documentary Hell tour, accompanied in the director Pepe Danquart Aldag and Erik Zabel during the tour was born.
During the Tour de France in 2005 and 2006, he worked as co-commentator and expert on ZDF.
The father of three who lives with his family on a farm in Westphalia.
Palmarčs
- WM- Third of amateurs in road quad (1990 )
- 12th place in Paris -Roubaix 1993
- 9th place in Paris -Roubaix ( 1995, 1997 and 2003)
- Second Place Couple Time Trial Karlsruhe ( with Olaf Ludwig) 1996
- Winner Tour of Bavaria 1999
- Winner of the team classification at the Tour de France in 1997 and 2004
- German Road Champion 2000
- Stage wins at Tour of Germany, Tour de Suisse, Tour de Romandie, Tour of Bavaria
- Carrier of the dotted jerseys Tour de France 2003
- Winner of the mountains classification Tirreno- Adriatico 2004
- Winner Sparkassen Giro Bochum - 2003
- 7th Tour of Flanders 2004
- Victories in Six Days in Dortmund (8) Berlin (2)