Gerald Ciolek

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Gerald Ciolek

Personal information
Full name	Gerald Ciolek
Nickname	Gerry
Date of birth	September 19, 1986 (1986-09-19) (age 21)
Country	Germany
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10+1⁄2 in)
Weight	75 kg (170 lb)
Team information
Current team	Team High Road
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 Team High Road
Major wins
U23 World Champion (2006) National Champion (2005) Deutschland Tour, 3 stages
Infobox last updated on:
December 24, 2007

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

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. After a relatively quiet early season, he came from behind to win the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt in May. He then caught fire in August, when he took three stages of the Deutschland Tour and was a fast-charging third in the Vattenfall Cyclassics.

[edit] Palmarès

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Site (German)

v • d • e Riders on Team High Road Michael Barry | Marcus Burghardt | Mark Cavendish | Gerald Ciolek | Scott Davis | John Devine | Bernhard Eisel | Linus Gerdemann | Bert Grabsch | André Greipel | Edvald Boasson Hagen | Roger Hammond | Adam Hansen | Greg Henderson | George Hincapie | Kim Kirchen | Andreas Klier | Servais Knaven | Craig Lewis | Thomas Lövkvist | Tony Martin | Marco Pinotti | Morris Possoni | František Raboň | Vicente Reynès | Michael Rogers | Marcel Sieberg | Kanstantsin Siutsou | Bradley Wiggins | Manager: Bob Stapleton

Persondata
NAME	Ciolek, Gerald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Road bicycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH	1986-09-19
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cologne, Germany
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH