Cycling: At the weekend, the championship jerseys are reassigned in numerous countries. So we will have new national champions just in time for the Tour de France. The new champions are also chosen in Germany. This year the German championship will take place on a circuit in Chemnitz. Can André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) defend their titles?
Tony Martin without competition in the time trial?
The German Road Championships begin on Friday, June 23rd. As usual, the specialists will start in the fight against the clock. At 14 p.m. the women and the drivers of the U23 class start. From 17 p.m. the male pros will start. Tony Martin is once again the favorite on the 48-kilometre circuit. Last year, Tony Martin triumphed for the sixth time. The main challengers are Jasha Sütterlin (Movistar), Maximilian Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Marco Mathis (Katusha-Alpecin) and Lennard Kämna (Sunweb). Under normal circumstances, however, there is no doubt about Tony Martin's seventh title. In the women's category, defending champion Trixi Worrack (Canyon SRAM Racing) and former world champion Lisa Brennauer (Canyon SRAM Racing) probably have the best cards.
André Greipel against Marcel Kittel – or is it an outsider after all?
In addition to Lisa Brennauer and Trixi Worrack, defending champion Mieke Kröger (Canyon SRAM Racing) is of course also among the contenders for victory in the women's road race on Saturday. Six 19,4 kilometer laps are covered through Chemnitz. The men have five more laps to complete, bringing the total distance to 213,4 kilometers. Here the winner should not be so easy to predict in advance. Because about half of the laps there is a hill of about two kilometers in the way. Overall, the men's road race comes to almost 2.000 meters in altitude. Nevertheless, many experts assume that a larger group will sprint. Then defending champions André Greipel and Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) should have a good chance of winning the title. John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo), Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe), Maximilian Walscheid and Phil Bauhaus (Sunweb) are also among the favourites. The two German teams Bora-hansgrohe and Sunweb go into the race with a clear advantage, as they will be starting with many drivers. Nevertheless, an outsider coup does not seem unlikely if the profile should turn out to be too hard for the sprinters.
