It's the time of the year again in which the cycling teams for the new season 2009 get presented ... That is because the presentations are planned just before or just after the Tour Down Under (18 till 25 January) now it's part of the UCI ProTour.

Just like Rabobank with its pure combativity last Monday, the Milram cycling team also presented itself on Wednesday 7 January with a slogan: everything new, everything different!

Everything new, everything different

And indeed the only German cycling team which is left (at ProTour level) -after the disappearance of Gerolsteiner and the transfer of T-Mobile which has become High Road and than Columbia to the United States- indeed has a lot of new and different things in 2009!

Everything new
... to start with the riders: many riders have left and no less than 14 new riders arrived.

The riders who left
In addition to Igor Astarloa and Alessandro Petacchi who were fired due to doping related issues 15 other riders have left the team.
These riders are Volodymyr Dyudya, Artur Gajek, Sergio Ghisalberti, Ralf Grabsch who became directeur sportif for Milram, Andriy Grivko who left for the Italian Team ISD, Dennis Haueisen who retires as a rider, Matej Jurco, Brett Lancaster who's now part of the new team Cervélo TestTeam, Alberto Ongarato, Enrico Poitschke who retires, Elia Rigotto, Fabio Sabatini who left for Liquigas, Sebastian Schwager, Marco Velo who joins QuickStep and Erik Zabel who also quit his career as active cyclist.

The new riders
Since the Gerolsteiner team disappeared Milram was able to get some of the best German riders: Robert Förster, Markus Fothen, Thomas Fothen, Johannes Fröhlinger, Matthias Russ, Ronny Scholz, Fabian Wegmann and Peter Wrolich.

Furthermore, Milram has offered a contract to three riders of the other former German team, Columbia: the German riders Gerald Ciolek and Linus Gerdemann and the Dutch rider Servais Knaven.
The two German riders from Columbia will be the new team captains for Milram.
Markus Fothen, Fabian Wegmann, Gerald Ciolek and Linus Gerdemann - the three first during the Tour de France 2008, Linus Gerdemann at the start of the Tour de France 2007; click on the photos to see them in big
Three other riders complete the team: the Austrian Thomas Rohregger who comes from the Elk Haus-Simplon team and two neo-profs, the Dutch Wim Stroetinga and the German Paul Voss.

The riders who stay
In total the German team has 25 riders (of whom 17 German). 11 riders thus stay in the team with the milk sponsor. These riders are the German Markus Eichler, Artur Gajek, Christian Knees, Christian Kux, Martin Müller, Dominik Roels, Björn Schröder, the Slovakian twins Martin and Peter Velits, the Italian Luca Barla and the Dutch Niki Terpstra (photo; click on the photo to see it in big or click here to see all my pictures of Niki Terpstra [13 at the time this article is being published]).

The team management
Two new directeurs sportifs join Vittorio Algeri: Ralf Grabsch who was in the team last year as a rider and Christian Henn who was directeur sportif for Gerolsteiner last year.

Everything different
There's been some changes in the team and with Gerald Ciolek and Linus Gerdemann Milram has two new team captains.

Gerry van Gerwen -the team manager- explained during the presentation that the mixture of young riders and experienced pros is a good one and the combination of team unity and individual class will enable (them) to perform at the highest level.

The goals
The team has one numeric goal: 25 victories in 2009. Concerning the races the main goals are the UCI ProTour races, the German stage races (but which stage races are left since there won't be a Tour of Germany in 2009?) and German one-day races and of course the Tour de France.

Concerning the Tour de France, Gerry van Gerwen said: Maybe this time we can have the yellow and green jerseys for a day and can win a stage. The team will absolutely do its very best to prepare for that.

The new directeur sportif Christian Henn gave some more information about the German races, but these are no stage races (maybe that was a mistake in the communication of the team?!): We are very happy that in the coming season we can ride for the win in Rund um Köln and Rund um den Henninger Turm. Germany is our sporting home and it is our duty as well as our pleasure to show ourselves from our best side as a German team at home. So we are happy about every opportunity that we have to present ourselves to the German cycling fans.

Transparency
Transparency seems to be another vogue word for cycling teams ... after the Rabobank team which will publish all doping tests of its riders online, Milram also says it wants to be as transparent as possible. For Milram that'll especially mean full transparency towards the press with small press conferences (just like they do in football) before each important races and each time the Milram team has something to announce.
During these press conferences the team will analyse the previous race, talk about the upcoming race, give all news about the team and present interview partners (I don't really understand what Milram means to say with that ... maybe that at those press conferences one or more people will be available for interviews?).

A few pictures

Below you'll find some photos of the team presentation of the Milram cycling team for 2009 and of the new cycling wear. These photos are © Team MILRAM.
The Milram 2009 team

The three most important riders of the team: Fabian Wegmann, Gerald Ciolek and Linus Gerdemann

Linus Gerdemann already is a fan of Milram milk


The cow decoration Milram 2009 shirt - this shirt clearly shows what Milram stands for

The other sponsors

In addition to the Milram brand, the team of course has a number of other sponsors and suppliers.
There again there's a little bit of "everything different": Milram got rid of Colnago as its bike supplier and chooses the German brand FOCUS which is proud of the geometry of their bikes and of SSPS which means stable stiffness per size, that is the stiffness of the frame is the same for all sizes. The German team must be happy that the bike now is 100% German since FOCUS' bikes are completely designed in Germany. Milram chose the FOCUS Izalco Extreme (by mistake the team calls it Icalco Extreme in its press kit).

Another new sponsor is the Belgian company Vermarc which supplies the cow-decorated cycling kit.

The other sponsors are: Skoda for the cars (Škoda Octavia), Le Coq Sportif for casual clothing, 3T for bike forks, Continental for bike tires and tubes, Fizik for the saddles, FSA for the handlebars, Garmin for GPS bike computers and GPS car navigation, Grupotel Playa de Palma Suites & Spa as hotel partner, Lausitzer Fruchtkonserven GmbH for jellies, preserves and fruit juices, Lightweight for racing wheels, Lui's Karlsruhe for the suits, Motorex for oil and bike care materials, Multipower for nutritional supplements, Rudy Project for the helmet and glasses, SCI-CON for the bike bags, Skins for functional clothing, SKS for air pumps, Speedplay for the pedals, SportsBalm for skin care products and sports creams for the prevention of muscle injuries and to help blood circulation, SRAM for the gears, SRM for mobile power measurement, Tacx for drink bottles, training rollers and cycle tools and Tecar for medical equipment.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Team presentations 2009 | Marketing

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