Jens Voigt

Voigt at the 2004 Deutschland Tour
Personal information
Full name	Jens Voigt
Nickname	Boeing
Date of birth	September 17, 1971 (1971-09-17) (age 36)
Country	Germany
Height	1.89 m
Weight	76 kg
Team information
Current team	Team CSC Saxo Bank
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All rounder/Breakaway specialist
Amateur team(s)
	Berlin TSC
Professional team(s)
1997–1997 1998–2003 2004–	ZVVZ-Giant-Australian Institute of Sport Crédit Agricole Team CSC
Major wins
2 stages, Tour de France 1 stage, Giro d'Italia 2007 Deutschland Tour 2006 Deutschland Tour 2001 Grand Prix des Nations 1999, 2004, 2007, 2008 Critérium International 2005 Tour Méditerranéen 2005 LuK Challenge
Infobox last updated on:
May 29, 2008

Jens Voigt

Jens Voigt (born September 17, 1971 in Grevesmühlen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) is a German professional road bicycle racer. Voigt is known as affable with a propensity to attack, and for his positive racing attitude. He is capable of repeated attacking, holding a high tempo, and breaking away from the peloton. He has worn the maillot jaune of the Tour de France twice, though Voigt has never challenged for the overall title due to his inability in the mountains.

He is the riders' representative on the UCI ProTour council, for the Cyclistes Professionels Associés (CPA),^[1] and Voigt has spoken against doping.^[2]

Biography

Jens Voigt in the Ster Elektrotour (2006) in Schimmert

Jens Voigt was born in the same area as Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich. He won the Peace Race in 1994 and topped the UCI "Challenge Mondial Amateurs" rankings in December 1994.^[3] After the German Army, he started professional cycling in 1997, winning races for the Australian team ZVVZ Giant Australian Institute of Sport.

In 1998, with the support of his former Australian Institute of Sport Sports Director, German-born Heiko Salzwedel, he moved to the big French team GAN (now Crédit Agricole) where he spent the five years amassing 20 wins, among them a day in the maillot jaune in the 2000 Tour de France, and a stage in the 2001 Tour de France. Voigt played a part in Jan Ullrich's 2000 Olympic Games win for the German team.

In 2004 Voigt moved to Team CSC, where he met former Crédit Agricole teammate Bobby Julich. They form a strong pair, both being tempo specialists, and they dominated the 2004 and 2005 LuK Challenge race, a two-man time trial.

Jens Voigt rode the 2004 Tour de France for Team CSC captain Ivan Basso Voigt and team mate Jakob Piil were often in breakaways, covering the break for CSC. On the 15th stage, Voigt was in a break as Ullrich attacked up the Col de l'Echarasson, leaving race leader Lance Armstrong and 2nd-placed Basso. With Armstrong's team unable to pull Ullrich back in, Voigt was ordered back from his breakaway to help Basso defend his place. Voigt saw Ullrich ride past as he waited for his captain, before he single-handedly closed the gap to Ullrich. Next day was a time trial up the Alpe d'Huez with 900,000 spectators at the roadside. Voigt was heckled by German fans calling him Judas for his effort to ruin fellow Ullrich's chances. Voigt criticised German TV-channel ARD for starting a witch-hunt against him and pleaded that he was paid by Team CSC, not Germany.^[4]

Jens Voigt (in front) at stage 8 of the 2005 Tour de France

At the start of 2005, Voigt won the Tour Méditerranéen, ahead of team mates Fränk Schleck 2nd and Nicki Sørensen 4th. Voigt won the first UCI ProTour event, the prologue time trial of the 2005 Paris-Nice, a race Julich won overall. Voigt nearly won the 2005 classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège when he was beaten on the line by Alexandre Vinokourov, Voigt having been on a breakaway almost the entire race.

After a strong placing in the stage 1 time trial of the 2005 Tour de France, Voigt was only trailing race leader Armstrong by 1 minute and he tried hard to take the overall lead. He took part in many attacks, and the 9th stage, before the first rest day, finally got in a break-away that lasted to the line. He finished third, 3 minutes ahead of Armstrong. Voigt's time in the maillot jaune would be shortlived however, as he fell to 168th at stage 10 after a fever, and he was eliminated for failing to finish stage 11 within the time limit. Voigt ended 2005 as 29th on the UCI ProTour individual rankings.

Voigt at the 2006 Rund um den Henninger Turm race.

For 2006, Voigt started slower than in 2005 to save energy for helping Basso to win the 2006 Giro d'Italia and 2006 Tour de France races.^[5] His only result until the Giro in May an attack on the fifth stage of the Vuelta al País Vasco, but he had to settle for second behind stage winner Thomas Voeckler.

For the Giro d'Italia, Voigt rode in support of Basso. Following Team CSC's team time trial win on stage 5, Voigt found himself second, trailing race leader Serhiy Honchar by six seconds. During the first mountains, Voigt helped Basso take the overall lead, while he slid down the board and finished 37th. On mountainous stage 19, Voigt and Julich were in a 20-man break, but as Team CSC was leading the peloton to defend Basso's first place, Voigt and Julich did not work. Up the last climb, Voigt was alone with Spanish rider Juan Manuel Gárate, but as Voigt did not think he had done enough to deserve the victory, he let Garate take the win.^[6] Voigt finally got his first win of the season in the Ster Elektrotoer race in June. Here he won stage 4 and helped teammate Kurt Asle Arvesen to the overall win, two weeks before the Tour de France.

In the days before the Tour, Basso was suspended by Team CSC after his name had been brought up in the Operación Puerto doping investigation. Carlos Sastre became team captain. Voigt took the role of early attacker, to lessen the load for the team, and he formed or joined unsuccessful breakaways on several stages. On stage 13 from Béziers to Montélimar, longest stage of the 2006 Tour at 231km, Voigt got in a five-man breakaway which finished 29 minutes and 58 seconds ahead of the main bunch. At the line, Voigt outsprinted Óscar Pereiro to take his second Tour stage win. On stage 15, Voigt helped Fränk Schleck from Luxembourg, pulling hard in the break with teammate David Zabriskie of the USA, which eventually gave Schleck the win. Voigt finished the 2006 Tour 53rd, helping Sastre finish 4th.

Jens Voigt in the Prologue of the 2008 Tour of California, battered from a training crash the week before.

Wins

Teams

• 1997 - ZVVZ-Giant
• 1998 - Gan
• 1999 - 2003 Crédit Agricole
• 2004 - Team CSC

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Jens Voigt

• Profile at Team CSC