German trying to find success with his British Endura Racing team across the Atlantic
Paul Voß has been racing for Milram for two years but when the German ProTour team folded he had to settle for the Continental team of Endura Racing in Great Britain. The team is currently racing the Tout of Utah.
Voß was happy that the Tour of Utah finally started and he was able to participate. He had a rough start to the season. As soon as he had recovered from a shoulder injury, he broke his collarbone. Now he hopes to have a decent rest of the season and obtain some results, so he can make it back to a World Tour team again.
The race started Tuesday with a hilly 2.1-kilometer prologue. "I started the day at 6am, like the days before - thanks to jetlag," he wrote in a diary for Radsport News. "At 9am we rolled easy for 40 minutes, before breakfast."
The prologue was in the afternoon. "Around noon we headed to the start," he wrote. "I had a relatively early start, so I immediately took a look at the course. It was really tough." The route went uphill almost the entire way, with an elevation gain of 157 meters. "After checking out the course the discussions started if it is possible to ride the whole think in the big chainring. You can - ouch!"
The cyclocross specialist rates himself as a not so great time trialer. "At the warmup I didn't have a bad feeling, but it didn't go well in the race. I couldn't go past my limit." Voß explained that that was an essential part of a good time trial. He lost 29 seconds to finish 46th, but was happy for his teammate. "Jack Bauer had a superb day - he became eighth and was in the neighborhood of some big names."
The German was looking forward to see how things would go on stage one. "After all we have to climb three passes."