Sparkassen Giro Bochum 2013

28.07.2013 Official Site
Germany, 1-day Road Race
UCI 1.1

Held since 2001 (the men's race began three years earlier), the Sparkassen Giro is a fast and thrilling one-day race held on a tight urban circuit in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany. Last year, due to the Olympics taking place at the same time, the race was stripped of its UCI status; nevertheless, it went ahead with the usual Giro as well as inline-skating races, live bands and DJs (including the rather worrying-to-English-ears Schlager Hit-Mix-Party), circus sideshows and, to finish off, a huge firework display. This year, with UCI 1.1 status returned, the event has grown even bigger and now includes a running race and "the biggest Derny race in the world."

2012 winner Mieke Kröger, pictured here
at the 2012 Thuringen Rundfahrt

If you want to see some professional women's racing this season but can't persuade your family to share your passion for the sport, Sparkassen is the event for you - it's an enormous urban festival with a bike race at its heart.

Want live updates? Boels-Dolmans mechanic Richie Steege and Hitec-UCK manager Karl Lima are Tweeting directly from the race.

Previous Winners
2001 Sharon van Essen
2002 Bertine Spijkerman
2003 Svetlana Bubnenkova
2004 Deirdre Demet-Barry
2005 Angela Hennig
2006 Oenone Wood
2007 Hanka Kupfernagel
2008 Suzanne de Goede
2009 Rochelle Gilmore
2010 Ellen van Dijk
2011 Adrie Visser
2012 Mieke Kröger

Parcours

View Sparkassen Giro 2013 in a larger map

Short circuit: 1.53km
Long circuit: 12.8km

The short, tight city centre circuit suits those riders who feel comfortable in the elbow-to-elbow battles that take place in urban criterium races and, with those sharp corners, is a challenging test of bike-handling skills when taken at speed. The long circuit is an entirely different affair, well-suited to those time trial specialists who can hunker down into an aerodynamic tuck and keep turning a big gear, swallowing up the miles at high speed.

It's an unusual combination with few riders possessing the skills needed to excel on both types of parcours - which is why the Giro has tended to throw up unexpected winners throughout its history.

2012 podium