The 4th edition of the Deutschland Tour has made a few changes this year. While the race was previously suited for one-day specialists and sprinters, this edition is a GC battle for climbers and all-rounders. 

The race starts on August 24th with a 2.7km prologue in Weimar. Following this, the riders will take on 710 kilometres and climb 11,000 meters of altitude. Stage 3 has the decisive change in this year’s route, with a mountain top finish at Schauinsland. Finally, the race ends in Stuttgart on stage 4 with another test for the overall as riders climb over 3,000 meters.

In 2018 Matej Mohoric won the race, and a year later, Sonny Colbrelli was second overall. This year the team goes in with a strong line-up led by Pello Bilbao to contest for the title. Phil Bauhaus and Jonathan Milan will be the sprint options, while Heinrich Haussler will be a key lead-out man for the sprint stage. The six man line-up will be rounded with Hermann Pernsteiner and Filip Maciejuk. 

Sports Director Enrico Poitschke: “This year’s Deutschland Tour is a bit different than last year. There are some hard stages and a mountain finish. This year we’ll fight for the GC victory. We have a very good team, with Pello Bilbao being the team leader. We also have a perfect line-up for a few sprint stages with Phil Bauhaus, Heinrich Haussler and Jonathan Milan. To support Pello in the climbs, we have Hermann Pernsteiner and, for general support, Filip Maciejuk. In my eyes, this is a really strong team, and we have a possibility to fight for each stage as well as for the top 3 results or victory in the GC. Tour of Germany is different from other races as its only 6 riders per team, which means one helper less and harder to control the race, but with our line-up, we are perfectly prepared for this race.”