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[EN] While the Vattenfall Cyclassics in Hamburg doesn’t have much history to its name, the same can in fact be said for the Tour of Germany. Jammed in between the Clasica San Sebastian and the Hamburg cup, the Deutschland Tour is starting to gain esteem by the international cycling community. This German Tour has had a rocky past. It seemed almost impossible to get some sort of rapport going with organisers, cyclists and fans.


1911 saw its first race through Germany. This edition could be compared more to a city-to-city race like the Tirreno Adriatico or Paris – Nice. In the days that German cycling was not more than an idea, many have attempted to organise a Deutschland Tour. It took them a long time to get going, but in 1931 the first successful attempt is made. The program confronts the riders with no less than 4000 kilometres, German Erich Metze the winner of the event.
Again no quick sequel to the ’31 Tour, but between 1937 and ‘39 three Tours were organised and raced. Obviously no racing took place during the Second World War.


The next chapter through Germany was in 1947. Still, the race kept on having financial problems throughout its history. Then, to make things worse, the post-war organiser died and no-one stepped up to take his place. In 1960 another attempt was made to give the race a new lease of life, but again after three editions the “candle’s flame was blown out”. In 1979 a new organisation had a go at it. They acually managed to organise the event four times in a row, but failed to get the necessairy sponsors and ended up with a debt of 300,000 Deutschmark (about 150,000 Euros), so 1983 was the Tour of Germany’s last year.


The Jan Ullrich win in the 1997 Tour de France (He became an instant star in Germany) will undoubtedly have contributed in the resurrection of the Deutschland Tour. Thouroughly preparing in 1998, the first new edition is held in 1999. Cycling is much more popular now in Germany, the thousands of enthousiastic fans always present alongside the route.
Because of the rocky past of the race no really big names are found on the leaderboard, except in the last few years. The year 2005 was a painful one for Ullrich and his team. Failing to win the Tour de France he went all out to win the Germany Tour, only to see Levi Leipheimer snatch victory right in front of Jan Ullrich’s T-Mobile headquarters in Bonn. That must have hurt the “Pink squad”!