Münster - The 2nd Münsterlandgiro confirmed the good vibes people already felt after the inaugural edition last year. Superb organisation, great atmosphere, good roads, limited danger, hardly a better way to close the cyclo season and the T-Mobile Cycling Tour! In the end, Alexander Bauer (Team Lexxi) and Annika Grüber (Team Agapedia) were celebrated as winners of the 2007 Tour. The 130km long Münster race saw Nico Wernicke (Team Strassacker) outsprint 50 to 60 riders who constituted a first group, and Judith Cramer (Team Lexxi) claiming her biggest win of the season in the women's event.Wernicke thus won both the season's opener in Köln and the closer in Münster. Cramer took full advantage of the absence of Grüber, who participated in the German Hochschule Meisterschaft instead (and finished fifth over 65km). The latter's lead in the ranking was anyway so big that she could not be overtaken anymore.
One critic comment should be mentioned, though. Having all three available distances merging at the end leads to unnecessary danger. I found myself sitting in the first group all race and didn't witness any crash or tricky situation until we caught up with slower riders from the other races. Unfortunately, this also led to a crash 1.5 kilometres before the finish as we suddenly had to sweep left to overtake such a slow group. There was not enough place on the left so five, six guys went down - including myself. My race ruined. In the end I got ranked 81st, but most importantly I left without injury or bike damage.
ECB rider Morten Hansen came back from a forced break to finish his season with a respectable ride over 130 km. He hung onto the first group for a while, before the lack of training made itself felt in his legs.
Picture taken from Team Lexxi's website.
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