Leopard Pro Cycling restarts season at 15th of July
Almost four months after the international cycling season was paused, Leopard Pro Cycling is looking forward to be standing at the start line of an official UCI race again. From the 15th of July, the team will race in the Polish Dookoła Mazowsza stage race (2.2) and the MON Race (1.2).
As known the coronavirus has hit the world hard, and therefore also the professional cycling scene. After passing the finish line of the Grand Prix de la Ville de Lillers on the 8th of March, upcoming races were – logically - cancelled one after the other. In the past months, the Leopard Pro Cycling Team has tried to take on this difficult situation in a creative manner. The team was therefore active on the virtual roads of Zwift, where the team rode the entire German Rad Bundesliga series. After five demanding races on the indoor trainer, the team was able to take a small virtual success, by taking the second place in the overall team classification, with riders like Miguel Heidemann and Jan Maas almost always to be found amongst the first finishers.
Luckily for the Leopard Pro Cycling riders, none of them had to face very strict lockdown regulations from the authorities, which made that most riders were able to continue riding their bikes outside and, by doing so, maintain a good condition level. As July approached, it was time to look ahead carefully. Last week, the team gathered again for the first time for a small training camp in Bitburg, Germany, close to the border with Luxembourg. Here, the team took the opportunity to do some race simulations, both on the road bike and on the TT bike. After this short get-together, the races are presenting themselves thick and fast. After the restart in Poland, Leopard will battle for the national jerseys at the U23 National Championships of Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland, traditionally held in a combined race. Afterwards, the team heads to the Czech Cycling Tour, where it will face no less than six UCI World Tour teams. The Tour BITWA Warszawska – again in Poland – is the last race before some riders take on the Tour de l’Avenir with their national teams. August will be concluded at the various National Championships. A more complete race calendar will be presented at a later moment.
Upcoming race program Leopard Pro Cycling
15-18.07 – Dookoła Mazowsza (2.2) – Poland
19.07 – MON Race (1.2) – Poland
02.08 – 3-Länder Meisterschaft (NC) – Luxembourg
06-09.08 – Czech Cycling Tour (2.1) – Czech Republic
12-16.08 – Tour BITWA Warszawska (2.2) – Poland
14-19.08 – Tour de l’Avenir (2.Ncup) – France
21-23.08 – National Championships (NC)
Markus Zingen, Team Manager
"We are very happy to be able to actually think about racing again. We have to remember that our temporarily break is disproportionate to the suffering the world has known, and still knows. At Leopard, all involved luckily stayed healthy and we can’t wait to get going again. We were able to establish a satisfying race program for the restart of the season and we are currently working hard to do so for the remainder of year as well. We are curious to see where everybody stands, but the team camp in Bitburg and recent recording-breaking training data offers great hope for a successful campaign. Finally, in the name of the entire Leopard family, I want to thank all partners and suppliers for their support, patience and kind messages in the past few months."
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