Grischa Niermann has signed a further extension to his contract with Rabobank, taking him through to the end of 2012. The dependable German super-domestique has been riding for the Dutch team since 1999, making him by far its longest serving member, with this extra year taking his total time up to fourteen years.
35-year-old Niermann, to whom the team refers as “the silent force” has won just two races in all his years with Rabobank: the 2001 Niedersachsen-Rundfahrt, and the time trial stage of the 2008 Regio-Tour. Despite the lack of personal success though, “he has, with his experience, team spirit, race insight and versatility, increasingly developed into an invaluable rider within the team.”
Niermann has ridden fifteen Grand Tours for Rabobank, and will be starting his sixteenth in July, which will be his ninth Tour de France, in support of Robert Gesink’s bid for overall victory. He has only failed to finish a three-week race on one occasion, when he crashed out of the 2001 Tour. In 2002 he achieved his best ever Grand Tour finish, with 22nd in the Giro d’Italia.