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Q&A Session: Paul Voß
Velorooms is happy to announce a Q&A session with Paul Voß, "Ex-Pro but not yet retired". You can ask your questions over the next week and we will send them to Paul at the weekend.
Paul Voß is a cyclist from Rostock/Germany, who was riding for the German based Bora - Argon 18 team for the past couple of years. He is a seven-time Grand Tour participant and 2016 was his most successful season as a pro so far. Dreadful weather conditions couldn't stop him to win the Rad am Ring race around the famous Nordschleife, and his constant breakaway attempts were rewarded with the Polka Dot Jersey in the first stage of the Tour de France.
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Like every kid, Paul had the dream to do the Tour de France one day when he started to ride the bike in 1998 at the age of 13. And that dream finally came true in 2014, when he was part of Team NetApp - Endura's first participation in the Grand Boucle. He has been part of their Tour team ever since, so that the 2016 edition saw Paul on the startlist for the 3rd time in a row. Some may have expected his debut to come even earlier when he went straight to the World Tour with Milram in 2009 - but the folding of the team only one year later saw him having to step back to continental level with the Endura Racing Team.
Joining that little British team turned out to be a good move for him though, and his race calendar improved steadily, especially after the merger with NetApp in 2013. Over the years, he turned into a very valuable member of the team, and apart from Scott Thwaites and Zak Dempster he was the only former Endura rider left in the 2016 Bora outfit.
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Paul Voß has participated in all three Grand Tours, and also took part in most other important races of the cycling calendar, like the Ardennes Classics, the Giro di Lombardia, Milano-Sanremo, the Ronde van Vlaanderen and various stage races. Before winning the Rad am Ring in 2016, his biggest win as a pro came in the 2010 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, when he won the Prologue, and he was also part of the Bora-Argon 18 team coming first in the opening team time trial of the 2015 Giro del Trentino.
Despite having his best season as a pro so far in 2016, Paul Voß ended up without a team for this season - but for him that's no reason to hang his head. "New year. New challenges", he said. "2016 was a year to remember in many ways. I could achieve some of my childhood dreams, just missing out on the Olympic Games will always hurt a bit. 2017 will be different for me. I will pursuit my dream to make the PAUL VOSS DEVELOPMENT TEAM into something great for our future stars. Life has a to offer a lot and I'm looking forward to the new opportunities and challenges which are ahead of me. By the way. I'm not done yet. No retirement!"
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His own youth team, the Paul Voss Development Team, was founded at the beginning of 2016, and consists of six young riders from the Berlin/Brandenburg area. "Youth cycling and development has always been close to my heart. German cycling is growing every year, but doesn’t have the same infrastructure as some countries like France, Italy and Spain", is what he said about the reasons to found a team himself. "On a day to day basis, I try to check in with all the riders, parents and the coach. I like to keep up with their results, and I like to advise them and help them prepare mentally. But I’m also helping with accounting and logistics, like which hotels etc. are best at which races. I try to be in contact with each of the riders 2 to 3 times a week to keep up with what is going on with them. It’s really important to me that they continue to do well in school. It’s nice: I really enjoy it. I try to be involved as much as I can. It was always my dream to have a development team and be involved with young riders, it’s fantastic to be able to kick start it when I’m still an active pro. I do see a long future with this, and hopefully the team lasts for many years."
For more information on the youth team, you can visit the Facebook site of the team (https://www.facebook.com/paulvossdevelopmentteam), or also have a look at Paul's personal website tourdevoss.com (http://tourdevoss.com), his Twitter (https://twitter.com/paulvoss86) or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/paul_voss/), to read more about his life as a cyclist.