Gerald Ciolek gets a rare chance to chase success on home soil when the lines up as MTN-Qhubeka captain at today's Rund um Köln. With several German riders on the roster, the race has a special significance for the South African team.

Today the German MTN-Qhubeka riders will be extremely motivated to pull on their kit as they get to race at home, in Germany. The Rund um Köln is a German UCI 1.1 category race that generally suits the fast men, like Gerald Ciolek.

Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung will start with all its German riders as part of the lineup today as they look to set up Gerald Ciolek in this important race. Andreas Stauff, Martin Reimer and Linus Gerdemann are the countrymen that Ciolek will count on with further support coming from the South African trio of Jay Thomson, Dennis van Niekerk and Johann van Zyl.

As mentioned earlier, the race is usually decided by the fast men but the course does feature 6 categorised hills. Therefore any weakness in form and team support will definitely be exposed in this race.

"A big part of our team is made up by German riders and staff, so this race is important to us because we can open the door to the media after our country’s dark past," Directeur Sportif Jens Zemke said. "We will bring all our Germans to this traditional race and we are not a usual team like all the others.We are racing to mobilise kids in Africa and therefore we always give our best in every race.  Our team is different and very interesting, we have seen this by all the media requests we have got.

"Team principal Douglas Ryder wore the Cologne jersey when he raced in the past. Ciolek and Stauff are both locals of this race too so as a team we have big ambitions for the race today."

Rund um Koln (Germany) – (21 April/UCI 1.1) Team Lineup

Gerald Ciolek (GER)
Andreas Stauff (GER)
Linus Gerdemann (GER)
Martin Reimer (GER)
Jay Thomson (RSA)
Dennis van Niekerk (RSA)
Johann van Zyl (RSA)