Dortmund, 11. February 2010. MILRAM newcomer Roger Kluge continues to show his strong form in the Tour of Qatar (February 7-12 / UCI 2.1). The Olympic silver medal winner was in a lead group which was caught only one kilometer before the finish line in Madinat Al Shamal. Up until the group was caught, he was ahead of Tom Boonen in a fight for a podium place. But the Belgian Champion took his second stage win in the mass sprint and defended his overall third place.

„It’s too bad that the group with Roger Kluge was caught so close to the finish,“ said Directeur Sportif Ralf Grabsch. „Roger was very aggressive again and would have absolutely earned the third place overall. He is fit enough and with the help of our strong team we will go for the podium again tomorrow.“
The stage win after 142 kilometers went to the Belgian Champion Tom Boonen, his second stage win. The Quick Step rider beat Italian Danilo Napolitano (Katusha) and Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) in the mass sprint. MILRAM veteran Peter Wrolich sprinted to a sixth place finish to round off the good performance by the German ProTour team.

MILRAM’s Roger Kluge again defended the jersey of the best young rider and going into Friday’s final stage is 1:59 down, in fourth place overall. The overall leader afte five days is still Dutch rider Wouter Mol (Vacansoliel) ahead of Belgians Geert Steurs (Topsport Vlaanderen) and stage winner Tom Boonen (Quick Step).

The ninth running of the Tour of Qatar ends on Friday with a 123 kilometer stage from Al Wakra to Doha Cornice.