Degenkolb “super” in stage two of Dauphine.

//Degenkolb “super” in stage two of Dauphine.

Degenkolb “super” in stage two of Dauphine.

Super Man.

This winning thing is super.

John Degenkolb (HTC-Highroad) dropped three supers after winning a challenging and technical stage  in the Criterium du Dauphine. He beat a highly motivated and desperate Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis) looking for a home town win on the challenging uphill finish in Lyon.

“I’m young rider and this is my first year as a pro but it’s been a super start to my career. I’ve had four victories before this one,” said Degenkolb. “It’s a super start for me as a professional. I’m super happy.”

You have to love that kind of youthful enthusiasm. We’re sure the podium girls were super pretty and the champagne super bubbly.

The young German kept his wits about him in the final hairpin corners, following the wheels of Dumoulin and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) before hitting the gas and timing his sprint perfectly, or shall we say, super-ly.

“It was a good stage for me. We saw it the (finish) before the race and said it was for me today. I’m so happy. It’s my first World Tour win,” he said at the finish line.

Some fans and cycling journalists have dubbed him the next Eric Zabel but that means Degenkolb better get started on matching those five Milan-San Remo wins.

Our question is, how does Rolf Aldag and Brian Holm find all these fast guys? Is there a guy on the HTC-Highroad roster that hasn’t won a race this year? If Aldag and Holm were in Hollywood, they’d be the kings of movie casting.

Garmin and BMC do a nice job of finding new talent but Bob Stapleton’s crew has the superior skill. No, wait, the super skill.

By |2019-02-03T16:19:23-08:00June 7th, 2011|Uncategorized|0 Comments

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