Les Woodland's book Tour of Flanders: The Inside Story - The rocky roads of the Ronde van Vlaanderen is available in print, Kindle eBook and audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
The race:
The Rund um Köln (English: Tour of Cologne), a single-day bicycle race, is one of cycling's oldest and the second-oldest bicycle race in Germany (the Rund um die Hainleite is slightly older). The first edition was held in 1908.
For much of its history (1908-1995) the Rund um Köln was solely an amateur race, with the exceptions of 1910 (separate races for amateurs and professionals) and 1911 and 1990 (just pros).
Cycling's doping scandals has engendered a strong antipathy towards professional cycling in the German media, causing several of the races sponsor's to back out in 2008 and creating severe difficulties for the organizers. The 2009 edition had the riders competing as national teams rather than their usual trade teams.
Over the years its standing on the race calender has been upgraded by the UCI and was ranked HC in 2007, but in 2009 it was reclassed as 1.1.
Historically the Rund um Köln has been held on Easter Monday, but starting in 2015 it will be run on the second Sunday in June.
And it changed again. In 2022 is was run in late May.
Recent podium history:
Year |
1st Place |
2nd Place |
3rd Place |
Distance |
Average Speed |
1964 | Horst Oldenburg | Peter Post | Klau May | ||
1965 | Hans Preiskeit 6hr 20min |
Manfred Donike | Hans Junkermann | 235 km | 37.105 km/hr |
1966 | Peter Glemser | Jozef Huysmans | Leo Hermens | ||
1967 | Noël Fore | Willy In't Ven | Roger Blockx | ||
1968- 1989 |
Race not held | ||||
1990 | Noël Segers | Andreas Kappes | Herman Frison | ||
1991 | Jerry Cooman | Johan Capiot | Mario De Clercq | ||
1992 | Louis De Kooning | Wilfried Peeters | Olaf Jentsch | ||
1993 | Willem Van Eynde | Christian Henn | Marcel Wust | ||
1994 | Udo Bolts | Rol Jaermann | Jens Heppner | ||
1995 | Eric Dekker | Frans Massen | Fausto Dotti | ||
1996 | Erik Zabel | Tom Steels | Johna Capiot | ||
1997 | Frank Vandenbroucke | Artur Babaitsev | Ludo Dierckxens | ||
1998 | Race cancelled because of snow | ||||
1999 | Jans Heppner | Raymond Meijs | Kai Hundertmark | ||
2000 | Steffen Wesemann | Hendrik Van Dyck | Jens Heppner | ||
2001 | Gianmatteo Fagnini | Bert Grabsch | Torsten Schmidt | ||
2002 | Peter Wrolich | Kai Hundertmark | Christian Werner | ||
2003 | Jan Ullrich | Danilo Hondo | Peter Wrolich | ||
2004 | Erik Zabel | Danilo Hondo | Kirk O'Bee | ||
2005 | David Kopp | Stefan Schumacher | David Canada | ||
2006 | Christian Knees 4hr 52min 43sec |
David Kopp @ 5sec |
Kai Reus @ 8sec |
202.8 km | 41.569 km/hr |
2007 | Juan José Haedo 4hr 50min 9sec |
Graeme Brown @ s.t. |
Alessandro Petacchi @ s.t. |
203.2 km | 40.019 km/hr |
2008 | Race cancelled because of snow | ||||
2009 | Martin Pedersen 5hr 0min 40sec |
Eric Baumann @ s.t. |
Mathias Belka @ s.t. |
205.1 km | 40.929 |
2010 | Juan José Haedo 4hr 56min 8sec |
André Greipel @ s.t. |
Enrico Rossi @ s.t. |
197.9 km | 40.097 |
2011 | Michael Matthews 4hr 50min 50sec |
Marcel Kittel @ s.t. |
Giacomo Nizzolo @ s.t. |
203.5 km | 41.983 |
2012 | Jan Barta 5hr 5min 58sec |
Gediminas Bagdonas @ 2min 2sec |
Tomasz Marczynski @ s.t. |
196.7 km | 38.574 |
2013 | Sébastien Delfosse 4hr 41min 17sec |
Pieter Jacobs @ s.t. |
Georg Preidler @ s.t. |
192.6 km | 41.083 |
2014 | Sam Bennett 4hr 39min 28sec |
Barry Markus @ s.t. |
Gerald Ciolek @ s.t. |
192.6 km | 41.350 |
2015 | Tom Boonen 4hr 26min 9sec |
Edward Theuns @ s.t. |
Andreas Schillinger @ s.t. |
196.0 km | 44.34 |
2016 | Dylan Groenewegen 4hr 42min 45sec |
André Greipel @ s.t. |
Nikias Arndt @ s.t. |
205.8 km | 43.67 km/hr |
2017 | Gregor Mühlberger 4hr 51min 39sec |
Mads Würtz Schmidt @ 1sec |
Fabian Lienhard @ s.t. |
206.3 km | 42.441 km/hr |
2018 | Sam Bennett 4hr 53min 17sec |
Mihkel Raim @ s.t. |
Szymon Sajnok @ s.t. |
207.7 km | 42.49 km/hr |
2019 | Baptiste Planckaert 4hr 54min 59sec |
Christoph Pfingsten @ s.t. |
Lionel Taminiaux @ 1min 26sec |
206.6 km | 42.023 km/hr |
2020 | Race cancelled | ||||
2021 | Race cancelled | ||||
2022 | Nils Politt 4hr 28min 21sec |
Danny Van Poppel @ 13sec |
Nikias Arndt @ 18sec |
199.3 km | 44.561 km/hr |
2023 | Danny Van Poppel 4hr 24min 54sec |
Milan Menten @ s.t. |
Jasper De Buyst @ s.t. |
201.1 km | 45.549 km/hr |
2024 | Casper van Uden 4hr 21min 55sec |
Biniam Girmay @ s.t. |
Louis Blouwe @ s.t. |
194.8 km | 44.625 km/hr |
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