Gerald Ciolek

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**Gerald Ciolek**
Personal information

Full name	Gerald Ciolek
Nickname	Gerry
Date of birth	September 19, 1986 (age 20)
Country	Germany
Height	1.79 m
Weight	75 kg
Team information
Current team	T-Mobile Team
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Amateur team(s)
2003-2004	Pulheimer SC
Professional team(s)
2005 2006 2007-	Team AKUD Arnolds Sicherheit Team Wiesenhof-AKUD T-Mobile Team
Major wins
U23 World Champion (2006) National Champion (2005) Deutschland Tour, 1 stage

Infobox last updated on:
December 25, 2006

Gerald Ciolek (born September 19, 1986 in Cologne) is a German professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour T-Mobile Team^[1]. In 2005, Ciolek won the German National Championship road race, the youngest ever rider to do so, at age 18.

Ciolek started racing at senior events in May 2005,^[2] with Team AKUD Arnolds Sicherheit, where he had a very successful season. In the German National Championships at Oberen Werntal, Ciolek was able to overcome seasoned sprinters Erik Zabel and Robert Förster without help from any team mates to win the road race championship, ending the twelve year domination of T-Mobile^[3]. Besides winning the national championship, he secured three stage victories and the points competition at the Tour de Hongrie^[4], and a stage victory at the Mainfranken Tour^[5].

In 2006, Ciolek completed his education at the Ford Motor Company and was able to turn professional and devote his career to cycling^[6]. Through the season, he rode strongly and secured a number of high placings in important races to prove he could challenge, and beat, the strongest sprinters in UCI ProTour teams. Ciolek had an excellent second placing at the Rund um den Henninger Turm, where he once again beat Erik Zabel^[7]. Since Ciolek’s AKUD Arnolds Sicherheit team merged with Team Wiesenhof at the beginning of the season^[8] to be the strongest German team outside of the UCI ProTour, they were able to secure wild card entries to a number of ProTour events where Ciolek shone even more. At the Vattenfall Cyclassics, Ciolek secured fifth place^[9]. A few weeks later, Ciolek won his first UCI ProTour event at the Tour of Germany, where he won stage three^[10]. On September 23, he won U23 Road Race World Championship in Salzburg.^[11]

For the 2007 season, Ciolek left Wiesenhof for the UCI ProTour with T-Mobile Team.

[edit] Palmarès

2006

U23 Road Race World Championship.
Tour of Germany: 1 stage
Istrian Spring Trophy: 1 stage
Rund um den Nürnberger Altstadt: 1^st place
Niedersachsen-Rundfahrt: young rider competition
Rund um den Henninger Turm: 2^nd place
Vattenfall Cyclassics: 5^th place

2005

Germany National Cycling Championship - Road Race
Tour de Hongrie: 3 stages & points competition
Mainfranken Tour: 1 stage

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Riders on T-Mobile Team
Michael Barry \| Eric Baumann \| Lorenzo Bernucci \| Marcus Burghardt \| Mark Cavendish \| Gerald Ciolek \| Scott Davis \| Bernhard Eisel \| Linus Gerdemann \| Bert Grabsch \| André Greipel \| Giuseppe Guerini \| Roger Hammond \| Adam Hansen \| Greg Henderson \| Serhiy Honchar \| Kim Kirchen \| Andreas Klier \| Servais Knaven \| André Korff \| Axel Merckx \| Aaron Olsen \| Jakob Piil \| Marco Pinotti \| František Raboň \| Michael Rogers \| Stephan Schreck \| Patrik Sinkewitz \| Thomas Ziegler
Manager
Bob Stapleton