Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

HTC-Highroad's Degenkolb takes his first professional victory

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Parent Category: Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Category: News Cycling Pro Road & Mtb 2011

Published on Thursday, 17 February 2011 20:14

Written by Luca Salvatelli

HTC-Highroad's young German neo-pro John Degenkolb shone today in Vuelta al Algarve taking his first win as a professional and his first win for HTC-Highroad.

"It was a great win," said Team Director Jan Schaffrath. "It wasn't your typical sprint. It was uphill and John started quite early with 400m to go. He opened up a gap and nobody could get him. He was definitely the strongest here today.

Stage Two traveled 186km from Logoa to the coastal town of Lagos on an undulating course.

"We didn't need to do a lot of work today," explained Schaffrath. "But when we hit 5km to go we brought the whole team to the front and they did a great job."

"It feels incredible to take my first win as a professional," said Degenkolb. "I was almost there in Mallorca. It was close, but now I have it and I'm really happy. I have to thank my team. I was able to save my energy on the hills during the race and they did a great leadout in the last kilometers.

"The last kilometer was a little crazy. I looked to Farrar and the other sprinters who were in front of me and decided to attack. There was a roundabout with 200 meters to go so I attacked before that and opened up a gap. With 200 meters to go I just sprinted and didn't look back."

The win is a great indicator of Degenkolb's form coming into the spring classics which are a big season goal for him. He came third in the U23 Ronde Van Vlaanderen in 2009.

"I hope I can work on my form over the next days here and be ready to do a great job for the team at Het Volk and the other classics. I'm looking forward to those."