Politt wants to be the first driver to achieve a championship double

Professional cyclist Nils Politt held both German championship titles, at least for a few hours. "I actually more or less managed that. I was double champion for two days," he said with a laugh on Saturday.

Today, Politt wants to defend his road title in the Black Forest and complete the double success. The Tour de France participant from Team Bora-hansgrohe could become the first German rider to win both championships in succession.

After his first place in the individual time trial on Friday, the 29-year-old from Cologne is hoping to win the road race on the 215 kilometres between Donaueschingen and Bad Dürrheim. "I think it's a course worthy of a championship," he said. Last year, Politt became German champion for the first time in Sauerland. "It will be a very tough race," surmised Politt, who is in good form. "A lot of people will be looking at me, of course." But he also made it clear: "We will try to defend the title as a team."

Buchmann wants the title

Bora colleague and Tour starter Emanuel Buchmann also wants to keep the title, which he himself won in 2015, in his own ranks. He somewhat clouded the prospect of Politt's double success: "I'm not taking that into consideration, it would certainly be nice. The important thing is that someone from the team wins. Whether that's Nils or me doesn't matter."

The professional cyclists begin at 11.30 a.m. with a neutral start, after five hours the riders, including Lennard Kämna, Maximilian Schachmann, Georg Steinhauser and Maximilian Walscheid, are expected to cross the finish line in Bad Dürrheim.

On Saturday, Liane Lippert defended her title in the women's race and won the German road cycling championship for the third time. The 25-year-old from Friedrichshafen from Movistar Team women pulled away early and crossed the finish line as a soloist.

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