Germany is the place to be this summer. Human Powered Health Cycling heads to the country currently hosting the European soccer championship to continue the sporting festival at the Thüringen Ladies Tour from June 25 through 30.
The race traverses the picturesque countryside of central Germany over six large circuit-style stages on predominantly rolling terrain that includes a 31.5km time trial. This is a particularly exciting stage as long time trials are rare in women’s stage racing, so stage 5 will be a GC decider.
Human Powered Health brings a strong squad of all-rounders to face this challenge. Ruth Edwards is back in action for the first time since scoring silver in the Pro Road Nationals and will lead the team in Germany. She is joined by compatriot Krista Doebel-Hickok, Romy Kasper in her home race, climber Barbara Malcotti, Tour Down Under QOM Katia Ragusa and Alice Wood.
How to watch
USA
Max with via the B/R Sports Add-On | 6/25 – 6/30 from 8 am EDT / 7 am CDT / 6 am MDT / 5 am PDT
UK and Europe
Eurosport/Discovery | 6/25 – 6/30 from 14:00 CET / 13:00 BST
Romy Kasper homecoming
Home rider Romy Kasper will be competing in her 15th edition of the Thüringen Ladies Tour, more than any other rider on the start list.
“I’m always super excited for racing at home,” said Kasper. “Thüringen is one of my favorite races as I won my first race as a professional there and also my parents are always coming to watch and cheer me on.”
Chief amongst those memories is Kasper’s stage win in 2014 where she beat Reta Trotman in a two-up sprint. The dynamic route this year reflects a growing race and presents a whole host of opportunities for an all-rounder like Kasper.
“Thüringen is always hard,” she says. “I’m happy a time trial is back as it was always part of the race but disappeared after COVID. The race is always hard to predict with plenty of opportunities, but I expect a crazy strong bunch again as it was always in the Olympic year.
Germany is a hotbed of cycling talent and has a rich history in the sport yet only boasts a few races on the calendar, Kasper is hoping races like Thüringen can inspire people to take up cycling.
“It’s so sad that a lot of big races in Germany disappeared in the past but they are slowly coming back with Stuttgart and also Tour de Berlin,” explains Kasper. But, for sure, the next generation needs to have their idols racing in their home country.”
Thüringen Ladies Tour stage-by-stage
6/25 Stage 1 | Jena – Jena (118.5km) Hilly
There’s no easy start in Germany with climbing almost from the off before the rolling parcours takes the peloton back to a flat finish in Jena. With fresh legs and mind it will be a breakaway versus sprint train kind of day.
6/26 Stage 2 | Gera – Gera (119.2km) Rolling
With 1,651 meters of overall elevation, stage two is no walk in the park with the profile once again promoting aggressive breakaway racing.
6/27 Stage 3 | Erfurt – Erfurt (144.6km) Flat
The flattest stage of the week may be the most likely to finish in a sprint but is also almost 25 kilometers longer than the next longest stage. After three days of hard racing, tired legs could tell.
6/28 Stage 4 | Mühlhausen – Mühlhausen (111.4km) Hilly
There is no mountain or uphill finish at Thüringen, but the two laps of a hilly route around Mühlhausen on stage 4 will more than likely bring GC candidates to the fore ahead of the time trial.
6/29 Stage 5 | Altenburg – Altenburg (31.5km) ITT
The twisting 31.5km time trial on the penultimate day will undoubtedly decide the GC battle. All-rounders like Ruth Edwards, Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon//SRAM Racing), Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) and Cédrine Kerbaol (CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling Team), will hope to push home an advantage.
6/30 Stage 6 | Schmalkalden – Schmalkalden (105.4km) Hilly
We’re on familiarly hilly ground on the final day but with the majority of the climbing coming early on, a strong team could take advantage of tired legs and cause splits early.
Follow comprehensive coverage of Human Powered Heath’s fortunes throughout the week via the team’s Instagram, Facebook and X accounts.
