Team Stölting have announced the line-ups for the Tour of Denmark and Rad am Ring.

The Tour of Denmark (2.HC) starts in Herning on Wednesday 27 July and ends on Sunday 31 July with the traditional finish in Frederiksberg. Each of the five stages poses special challenges for the riders.

Stage 1 from Herning to Esbjerg is the longest of the race at 200 km. After 152 km the very narrow bridge at Kammerslusen and the following 10 km atop a dyke directly at the sea make for a section where the race overall won’t be won, but may well be lost. The stage finishes with three short laps in Esbjerg. The Wadden Sea island of Rømø hosts the start of stage 2 which finishes in Sønderborg on the east coast of Jutland after 180 km. In between, there’s a cobble section in Møgeltønder and many small and narrow roads as well as a difficult finishing circuit, taking in the cobbled finishing climb to Dybbøl Mølle four times.

Stage 3 from Aabenraa to Vejle is the queen stage of the race with many short, but hard climbs on its 180 km. The final starts at km 130 with the climbs of Østengård and Gl. Kongevej/Chr. Winthersvej, the final circuit with Koldingvej and the 20% Kiddesvej will decide the stage. The overall victory will be settled on Saturday’s 19.6 km ITT in and around Nyborg, one of the oldest towns on the island of Funen. The 185 km stage 5 starts in Karrebæksminde and heads to Copenhagen through a beautiful landscape before finishing with 10 laps of the traditional circuit in Frederiksberg with the finish on Frederiksberg Allé, “Denmark’s Champs-Élysées“.

Five Danish riders will start for Team Stölting Service Group, including the reigning national champion Alexander Kamp. Michael Carbel, Rasmus Guldhammer, Mads Pedersen, and Michael Reihs also look forward to their home race. They are joined by Alex Kirsch (LUX), Thomas Koep (GER), and Fabian Wegmann (GER).

André Steensen (DEN) and Gregor Willwohl (GER) will be the team’s Sports Directors. Steensen comments: “We’ve had some good results recently, and the riders are ready. The Danes are especially motivated on home soil. In the race, we target stage wins. Last year, Rasmus Guldhammer and Alexander Kamp finished second and third in Vejle, that’s obviously a day where we should have a chance. The longer ITT will be a challenge for us, so we’re not targeting the race overall specifically. If a rider has a phenomenal day and rides a great TT we will support them, of course, but our primary target will be to win a stage.“

The Danish champion Alexander Kamp can’t wait to show his Danish champion’s kit to a home crowd: “I think I’m in even better form than one month ago at the national champs. My goal is to win a stage, and I know that André will guide us through the race well.”

This year marks the first time that the racing weekend Rad am Ring holds a road race for the professionals. The Rudi Altig Race (1.1) is named after Rudi Altig, the last German pro world road champion who won his title 50 years ago here at the Nürburgring. Altig, who was also a member of the Stölting Service Group advisory board, passed away in June after a long battle against cancer.

The Nürburgring hosted the very first pro world championships in 1927 as well as the championships in 1978 as well, so the route through “The Green Hell” of the North Loop is far from unknown. Five laps of the 23 km North Loop with the climb to the Hohe Acht and five finishing laps on the Nürburgring GP circuit offer a total of 3500 altitude metres over 140 km, making the race a very difficult one.

Team Stölting Service Group lines up seven riders: Romain Lemarchand (FRA) and six Germans. The experienced Linus Gerdemann will support his younger teammates but can also play a role in the race himself. Lennard Kämna, Christian Mager, and Sven Reutter as well as the stagiaires Moritz Backofen and Alexander Weifenbach look forward to racing in Germany again.

Jochen Hahn (GER) will be the team’s Sports Director. He says: “As a German team, German races are always special for us, and we’re very motivated. We don’t have a specialist climber, so we may be at a disadvantage against riders just off the Tour de France; but we want to show ourselves and make it a good race. It’s also the first outing for two of our stagiaires, and I’m looking forward to seeing Moritz and Alexander in action.”