Barry Markus has been signed by Belkin to play a key role in the lead-out train for Theo Bos but when Bos crashed out of today's Rund um Köln, he got a rare chance to sprint for himself. The young Dutchman paid back the confidence by taking second and was pleased with the result as the sprint came after a tough race with several climbs.

Barry Markus just missed out on the victory in Rund um Köln on Easter Monday today. The Belkin Pro Cycling TEAM rider finished second in a sprint, just behind Sam Bennet of NetApp-Endura. The 22-year-old Dutchman held off Gerald Ciolek, the winner of last year’s Milano-Sanremo and today’s third place finisher. 

“On the line I didn’t know if I’d finished first or second,” said Markus. “I could not really tell. A photo finish confirmed that I was second. In itself, I’m happy with that, because it was a tough race with a lot of climbs. This is a nice result for me.” 

The Belkin Pro Cycling TEAM had two other fast men in the ranks with Theo Bos and Moreno Hofland. The team decided to ride for Markus. 

“Theo Bos had abandoned after a crash,” Markus explained. “In the last thirty kilometres, Moreno and I talked and decided to play my card.” 

"Moreno and I both felt very good, but he said I could do the sprint. The preparation for the sprint went well because I was set up perfectly by Moreno and Graeme Brown 180 metres from the finish line. Soon I saw Gerald Ciolek pass me on the right. I moved a bit to close him but in the meantime Bennett came up alongside me on the left hand side.

"Now I'm going to focus on the Tours of Turkey and Norway. Maybe I can grab the win there."

Sports Director Michael Elijzen was satisfied with the way the team handled the situation with Bos.

“The men acted quickly and decidedly to shift their focus. Theo crashed after just twenty kilometres and couldn’t make his way back to the bunch as it had already split up in several groups. Barry earned his chance after his good team-work in previous races. It’s nice to see that he could immediately prove himself capable.” 

In Köln, Elijzen saw the first results of a sprint training camp that the team held in the days leading up to the race.

“The team deserves a compliment,” he said. “The men controlled the race and took the bull by the horns in the final. They did a perfect sprint. 

“During the training camp we worked on various topics. You can already see it paid off with how smoothly things went today.”