Deutschland Tour

For 2006-07 Nordic combined tour, see Tour of Germany.

Deutschland Tour

Race details
Date	August
Region	Germany
English name	Tour of Germany
Local name(s)	Deutschland Tour (German)
Discipline	Road
Competition	UCI ProTour (2005–2008)
Type	Stage-race
History
First edition	1911 (1911)
Editions	32
Final edition	2008
First winner	Hans Ludwig (GER)
Most wins	Jens Voigt (GER)
Final winner	Linus Gerdemann (GER)

The Deutschland Tour (English: Tour of Germany and sometimes Deutschland-Rundfahrt in German) was the most important multi-stage road bicycle race in Germany. Initially the race was held in May/June. Since 2005 it is part of the UCI ProTour and has been moved to August. On October 16, 2008 organizers have announced that the 2009 edition would be cancelled, following the doping cases that were revealed. Marketing chiefs said they were unable to finance the nine-day race due to a lack of interested sponsors after the latest revelations of cyclists testing positive for the blood-booster CERA. The race has not been held since.

History

Already in 1911 a "national" cycling race of over 1,500 km was held in Germany (which was then composed of several territories and kingdoms). Until 1931 several real—more-or-less—Tours were held, but always under very different conditions and organisations. In 1931 the first Deutschlandtour was held, and it is generally agreed upon that the race was exciting and well organised between 1937 and 1939, the start of World War II.

2005 overall winner Levi Leipheimer riding in the Deutschland Tour.

Germany never had a significant road cycling history, unlike Belgium, France or Italy, which caused the race's popularity to depend on German successes. This resulted in several parallel tours of West-Germany.

But after Jan Ullrich's Tour de France victory, cycling became more popular. Partially as a result of Germany's new-found cycling enthusiasm, in 1999 the Deutschlandtour became invigorated. In 1998 the Bund Deutscher Radfahrer e.V. and the company Upsolut founded the Deutschland Tour gmbh.

Winners

1911 - Hans Ludwig  Germany 1922 - Adolf Huschke  Germany 1927 - Rudolf Wolke  Germany 1930 - Hermann Buse  Germany 1931 - Erich Metze  Germany 1937 - Otto Weckerling  Germany 1938 - Hermann Schild  Germany 1939 - Georg Umbenhauer  Germany 1947 - Erich Bautz  Germany 1948 - Phillip Hilpert  Germany

1949 - Harry Saager  Germany 1950 - Roger Gyselinck  Belgium 1951 - Guido de Santi  Italy 1952 - Isidore Derijck  Belgium 1960 - Ab Geldermans  Netherlands 1962 - Peter Post  Netherlands 1979 - Dietrich Thurau  Germany 1980 - Gregor Braun  Germany 1981 - Silvano Contini  Italy 1982 - Theo de Rooij  Netherlands

1999 - Jens Heppner  Germany 2000 - David Plaza  Spain 2001 - A. Vinokourov  Kazakhstan 2002 - I. González de Galdeano  Spain 2003 - Michael Rogers  Australia 2004 - Patrik Sinkewitz  Germany 2005 - Levi Leipheimer  United States 2006 - Jens Voigt  Germany 2007 - Jens Voigt  Germany 2008 - Linus Gerdemann  Germany 2009 - Race canceled 2010 - Race canceled 2011 - Race canceled [1]

References

1. ^ No Deutschland Tour in 2011

External links

• Official Site