Rhineland-Palatinate is a western state of Germany. It covers 19,846 km2 (7,663 sq mi) and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Koblenz, Trier, Kaiserslautern, Worms and Neuwied. It is bordered by North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse and by the countries France, Luxembourg and Belgium.
Axel Eddy Lucien Jonkheer Merckx is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer and the son of five-time Tour de France champion Eddy Merckx. He is team director of UCI Continental team Hagens Berman Axeon.
Erik Zabel is a German former professional road bicycle racer who raced most of his career with Telekom. With 152 professional wins and 211 wins in his career, he is considered by some to be one of the greatest German cyclists and cycling sprinters of all-time. Zabel won a record nine points classifications in grands tours including the points classification in the Tour de France six consecutive years between 1996 and 2001 and the points classification in the Vuelta a España in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Zabel won the Milan–San Remo four times and numerous six-day track events. He was one of the few road cyclists of recent times who raced all year, including track cycling in winter. For season 2012 he joined Team Katusha as sprint coach. He previously held that same position with the HTC–Highroad team until their dissolution. Zabel admitted to doping from 1996 to 2004. He is the father of cyclist Rick Zabel.
Paul Martens is a German former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2006 and 2021.
Andreas Klöden is a German former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 1998 and 2013. His major achievements include a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympic Games and finishing second in the general classification at the 2004 and 2006 Tour de France. Klöden was a tall, lightly built racer with enough strength to place high in the overall classifications of the Grand Tours, but his performances were affected by injuries.
Jens Voigt is a German former professional road bicycle racer and, upon retirement, became a cycling sports broadcast commentator. During his cycling career, Voigt raced for several teams, the last one being UCI ProTeam Trek Factory Racing. Voigt wore the yellow jersey of the Tour de France twice, though he was never a contender for the overall title owing to the mountainous nature of the stages of the race being better suited to climbing specialists. His career achievements include winning the Critérium International a record-tying 5 times and a number of one-week stage races, as well as two Tour de France stage victories. In September 2014, he set a new hour record.
Gerolsteiner was a German road bicycle racing team in the UCI ProTour. It was sponsored by the mineral water company Gerolsteiner Brunnen and Specialized.
Fabian Wegmann is a German former professional road racing cyclist. Born in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Wegmann currently resides in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Marc Wauters is a former Belgian cyclist who was professional from 1991 until 2006. The 2004 Olympian, nicknamed The Soldier was a member of the Rabobank cycling team of the UCI ProTour since 1998 and had to end his career several weeks short because of a broken collarbone which he suffered during a training on 20 September 2006.
Stefan Schumacher is a German former professional road racing cyclist. Schumacher won the bronze medal in the road race at the 2007 UCI Road World Championships, two stages in the 2006 Giro d'Italia and two stages in the 2008 Tour de France. After positive results on doping products in the 2008 Tour de France and the 2008 Summer Olympics, he received a suspension for two years, later reduced by some months. After his suspension, he came back as a professional cyclist before retiring in 2017.
Steffen Wesemann is a Swiss-German former professional road racing cyclist.
Sebastian Lang is a former German professional road bicycle racer and time trialist, who rode as a professional between 2002 and 2011. He rode on Gerolsteiner from 2002 until its demise in 2008, and in 2006 became Germany's national time trial champion.
Gerald Michael Ciolek is a German former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2016. He currently works as a directeur sportif for UCI Continental team Dauner–Akkon.
Danilo Hondo is a German former professional road bicycle racer. He won the German National Road Race in 2002. He competed in the men's team pursuit at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Heinrich Haussler is an Australian road racing cyclist of German heritage, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Team Bahrain Victorious. He has won 2 stages in Grand Tours during his career, one at the 2005 Vuelta a España and another at the 2009 Tour de France. He is also a good Classics specialist, registering top results in notable classic races, and was the 2015 Australian national road race champion. He is the winner of the 2022 UAE Al Salam championship.
Bert Grabsch is a German former road bicycle racer, who raced as a professional between 1999 and 2013. He was born in Wittenberg and is the younger brother of fellow road racing cyclist Ralf Grabsch. He is a former UCI time trial world champion, having won the title in Varese, Italy on 25 September 2008.
Team Vorarlberg is a cycling team based in Austria. The team was founded in 1999 by the twin brothers Thomas Kofler and Johannes Kofler and previously known as Team Volksbank. In 2009, the Austrian federal state of Vorarlberg replaced Volksbank as title sponsor. In 2006 it became the first ever Austrian professional cycling team and was registered as a UCI Professional Continental team until June 2010, when their UCI license was suspended due to financial insecurity. The team was later re-registered as a UCI Continental team, and retained that status in 2011.
Christian Lademann is a former German professional racing cyclist.
Paul Voß is a German road bicycle racer, who currently rides for German amateur team RSK Potsdam. Voß rode professionally between 2006 and 2016 for the Team Heinz Von Heiden, Team 3C Gruppe–Lamonta, Team Milram, Endura Racing and Bora–Argon 18 squads, and has also worked as a directeur sportif for UCI Continental teams WIGGINS and LKT Team Brandenburg.
Team Lotto–Kern Haus is a Continental cycling team founded in 2002 from the fusion between ComNet Cycle and Athleticum–Principia. It is based in Germany and it participates in UCI Continental Circuits races.
Ortwin Czarnowksi (GER)
