Back after a three-week break, Columbia-Highroad’s Tony Martin is aiming for a top performance in the Bayern Rundfahrt in Germany, which starts on Wednesday.  The leading German stage race, Bayern runs from May 27th to May 31st, with a very hilly stage on Thursday and a 26-kilometre time trial on Saturday as the two main challenges.

“It’s my first ever Bayern Rundfahrt and after a long break like the one I’ve had you never know exactly how you’ll go when you get back into racing. But on paper it could suit me,” Martin says.  “Hopefully I can get through the hilly stage without losing too much time. The main climb looks like it’s not too tough, we gain about 600 metres in altitude each time we go over it.  Then assuming that stage goes well, I’ll go all out in the time trial.  The time trial is my kind of distance, and I’ve been told that it’s not too technical, with just a couple of short climbs, so that will be good for me and [World time trial champion and Columbia-Highroad teammate] Bert Grabsch. We’ll go and check it out in the morning before the stage starts.”

Martin says he’s very motivated to ride on home soil, adding, “That also means I’m under a little bit more pressure. This is Germany’s biggest stage race.  But my break went well.  I  had a week doing almost no riding, and since then I’ve been building up steadily, including a lot of work on the time trial bike.  Bayern is the first phase of my racing for the summer, and although I really want to be hitting top form by the Tour of Switzerland, it’ll be a very important indication of how  well I’m going right now.”

Columbia-Highroad for the Bayern Rundfahrt: Marcus Burghardt (Ger); Bert Grabsch (Ger), Andrei Greipel (Ger);  George Hincapie (USA);  Tony Martin (Ger); Maxime Monfort (Bel); Marcel Sieberg (Ger).