Jens Voigt

Jens Voigt

Voigt in 2007
Personal information
Full name	Jens Voigt
Born	17 September 1971 (1971-09-17) Grevesmühlen, East Germany
Height	1.89 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	76 kg (170 lb)
Team information
Current team	RadioShack-Nissan-Trek
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All rounder/Breakaway specialist
Amateur team(s)
Berlin TSC
Professional team(s)
1997 1998–2003 2004–2010 2011–	ZVVZ-Giant-Australian Institute of Sport GAN Team CSC Leopard Trek
Major wins
Tour de France, 3 stages Giro d'Italia, 1 stage Paris-Bourges (2003) Grand Prix des Nations (2001) Deutschland Tour (2006 & 2007) Tour de Pologne (2008) Critérium International (1999, 2004, 2007–09) Tour Méditerranéen (2005)
Infobox last updated on 5 January 2012

Jens Voigt (born 17 September 1971 in Grevesmühlen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, East Germany) is a German professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam RadioShack-Nissan-Trek. Voigt is known for his 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 yellow jersey of the Tour de France twice, though Voigt has never challenged for the overall title due to his lack of ability in the mountains. In cycling folklore, he is considered as one of the best rouleur riders to this day.

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

Voigt is generally popular with cycling fans, both for his riding style and his affable, forthright and articulate style in dealing with the public and media.^{[citation needed]}

Biography

Jens Voigt in the Ster Elektrotour (2006) in Schimmert

Jens Voigt was born in a small town about 100 km north-east of Hamburg, in the same area as Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich. Jens was encouraged by his parents to participate in sports. His early performance indicated he had good endurance potential, and he joined a national sports school at age 14 and trained in cycling and track and field.

He won the Peace Race in 1994 and topped the UCI "Challenge Mondial Amateurs" rankings in December 1994. After a four-year stint in the German Army, much of it spent with a special sports unit, 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 (which became 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 joined his former Crédit Agricole teammate Bobby Julich with a move to Team CSC, as Saxo Bank was then known. Being tempo specialists, they formed a strong pair as they dominated the 2004 and 2005 LuK Challenge race, a two-man time trial.

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.

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 teammates 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 short-lived 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.

The 2006 season started at a slower pace for Voigt compared to 2005 in order to save energy and be in a position to help Basso in his quest to win the 2006 Giro d'Italia and 2006 Tour de France races. His only result until the Giro in May was 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. 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 231 km, 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.

He abandoned the 2009 Tour on 21 July 2009 as a consequence of a violent crash suffered while descending the Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard with the yellow jersey group during stage 16. He incurred a fracture of the right cheekbone and concussion.

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

Voigt and his wife Stephanie have six children, the youngest being born January 2011.

Palmarès

Jens Voigt

1994

1st Overall Peace Race

1st Overall Niedersachsen-Rundfahrt

1996

1st Overall Sachsen-Tour

1997

1st Overall, Niedersachsen-Rundfahrt

1st Stage 5B

1st Prologue, Sachsen Tour

2nd Overall Tour de Langkawi

3rd Overall Peace Race

1998

1st Stage 5A, Vuelta al País Vasco

1st Points Competition, Prudential Tour

Held King of the Mountains Jersey Stage 9 Tour de France

1999

1st Overall Critérium International

1st Breitling Grand Prix

1st Stage 3 Route du Sud

1st Duo Normand (with Chris Boardman)

2000

1st Grand Prix Cholet

1st Bayern-Rundfahrt

2001

1st Stage 4 TTT Tour de France

1st Stage 16 Tour de France

1 day in maillot jaune Stage 7

1st Grand Prix des Nations

1st Stage 7 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

1st Tour de Poitou

1st Overall Bayern-Rundfahrt

1st Stage 2

1st Duo Normand (with Jonathan Vaughters)

1st Stage 6 Tour of Poland

1st Points Competition

1st Stage 1 Route du Sud

2002

1st Stage 3 Critérium International

1st Points Competition,

2003

1st Paris–Bourges

1st Stage 3 Critérium International

1st Overall Tour de Poitou

1st Stage 4

2004

1st Overall Critérium International

1st Stage 2

1st Stage 3

1st Stage 5 Vuelta al País Vasco

1st LuK Challenge

1st Bayern-Rundfahrt

1st Stage 4 Danmark Rundt

2nd overall, Deutschland Tour

2005

1 day in maillot jaune Stage 9 Tour de France

1st Stage 3 Étoile de Bessèges

1st Overall Tour Méditerranéen

1st Stage 1

1st Stage 3

1st Prologue Paris–Nice

1st Stage 5 Vuelta al País Vasco

1st Stage 4 Bayern-Rundfahrt

1st LuK Challenge Chrono Bühl

2006

1st Stage 13 Tour de France

1st Stage 4 Ster Elektrotoer

1st Overall Deutschland Tour

1st Stage 2

1st Stage 6

1st Stage 7 (ITT)

1st Rund um die Hainleite

1st Giro Bochum

2007

1st Stage 3 Tour of California

1st Overall Critérium International

1st Stage 2

1st Stage 4 Vuelta al País Vasco

1st Overall Deutschland Tour

1st Stage 8

2008

1st Overall Critérium International

1st Stage 18 Giro d'Italia

1st Overall Tour de Pologne

1st Stage 6

1st Mountains Competition

2009

1st Overall Critérium International

1st Stage 2

4th Overall Tour of California

6th Overall Paris - Nice

2010

6th Overall Paris–Nice

6th Overall Tour of California

1st Stage 4 Volta a Catalunya

Teams

• 1997: ZVVZ-Giant-AIS
• 1998: GAN
• 1999–2003: Crédit Agricole
• 2004–2008: Team CSC
• 2009–2010: Team Saxo Bank
• 2011–: Leopard Trek

External links

• Profile at Saxo Bank
• JensVoigtFacts.com – humorous "facts" about Jens Voigt

Sporting positions
Preceded by Johan Vansummeren	Tour de Pologne 2008	Succeeded by Alessandro Ballan