Despite not having UCI Women’s WorldTour status, the Thüringen Rundfahrt traditionally offers hard racing and exciting stages. Last year Elena Cecchini made a bold move on stage six to come from two minutes behind to take over and keep the yellow leader jersey for the 2016 tour.

This year’s edition starts on Wednesday 12 July with an evening prologue in Gera to open the tour. Along with an individual time trial (ITT) on stage four in Schmölln there are another five road stages.

Several time stage-winner at Thüringen Rundfahrt and former ITT world champion Lisa Brennauer expects the race to be full of its typical steep hills and fast descents.

“I think the tour has the same character than in past years, though sometimes there has been a short opening stage instead of a prologue. I’m super excited to come back to Thüringen to race. It’s great to be in my home country and for sure there will be some family and friends who will be there cheering for me and my teammates,” said Brennauer.

“I really like to take part in this race and to support women’s cycling in Germany. It’s a great tour, always well organized and full of thrilling racing,” added Brennauer.

Brennauer believes the five-rider line up will start the tour with an eye for the overall classification. “Of course as a team we would like to win the tour. Let’s see how the week unfolds and who is going to be our lead rider. A stage victory would be great for us as well,” said Brennauer.

The stages of Thüringen Rundfahrt are:
Prologue – Gera, 6.1km, 18:00 CEST
Stage 1 – Schleiz, 124km, 13:30 CEST
Stage 2 – Dörtendorf, 103km, 17:00 CEST
Stage 3 – Weimar, 124km, 14:00
Stage 4 – Scmölln, 18.7km ITT, 14:00 CEST
Stage 5 – Greiz, 108.3km, 14:40 CEST
Stage 6 – Gotha, 80.5km, 11:00 CEST