Olaf Pollack (born 20 September 1973) is a German former professional

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

and

road racing cyclist Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

specializing in

sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace *Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automotive and motorcycle *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, ...

races and competitions.

Track race

At the

2000 Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

, Pollack entered the

team pursuit The team pursuit is a track cycling event similar to the individual pursuit, except that two teams, each of up to four riders, compete, starting on opposite sides of the velodrome. Race format Both men's and women's events are competed over ...

and the

madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

. Pollack rode in the qualifying rounds for the team pursuit, but was not used in the German team that rode the final and won; Pollack still received a golden medal. For winning the gold medal at the Olympic Games 2000 Pollack was decorated with the

Silver Laurel Leaf Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf), the highest sports award in Germany, was endowed on 23 June 1950 by the German President Theodor Heuss. It is awarded to athletes and teams of exemplary character that have won medals at Olympic and ...

by Bundespräsident

Johannes Rau Johannes Rau (; 16 January 193127 January 2006) was a German politician (SPD). He was the president of Germany from 1 July 1999 until 30 June 2004 and the minister president of North Rhine-Westphalia from 20 September 1978 to 9 June 1998. In the ...

(''President of the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

)'' on 2 February 2001 At the madison, Pollack rode together with

Guido Fulst Guido Fulst (born 7 June 1970) is a former German racing cyclist, who competed for the '' SG Dynamo Wernigerode'', SC Dynamo Berlin / Sportvereinigung (SV) Dynamo. He won many titles during his career. He won two gold medals and a bronze at the ...

, and finished in sixth place. Pollack returned to the track in 2008, when he rode at the

2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships The 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships were the World Championship for track cycling. They took place at the Manchester Velodrome in Manchester, United Kingdom from 26 to 30 March 2008. Eighteen events were scheduled; the women's team pur ...

, and finished in second place in the madison. At the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

, Pollack rode the

together with

Roger Kluge Roger Kluge (born 5 February 1986) is a German professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Kluge left at the end of the 2013 season, and joined for the 2014 season. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, he won the silver medal ...

, and they finished fifth.

Road race

Olaf Pollack began his road cycling career at small German team Agro-Adler-Brandenburg in 1997. After 3 years he left for Team Gerolsteiner. In 2005 and 2006 he rode for T-Mobile, leaving in 2007 for Team Wiesenhof. The highlight of his road cycling career was wearing the pink jersey as leader of the

general classification The general classification (or the GC) in road bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for riders in multi-stage races. Each stage will have a stage winner, but the overall winner in the GC is the rider who has the fastest cumulati ...

at the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

and

2006 Giro d'Italia The 2006 Giro d'Italia was the 89th edition of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It began in the Belgian city of Seraing with a individual time trial. The race came to a close with a mass-start road stage that stretched from ...

. In August 2009, an eye problem made him end his cycling career, but a month later it became known that he had failed a

drug test A drug test is a technical analysis of a biological specimen, for example urine, hair, blood, breath, sweat, or oral fluid/saliva—to determine the presence or absence of specified parent drugs or their metabolites. Major applications of drug ...

. In 2009 he was suspended by the German Cycling Federation.Pollack and Cronjäger suspended
/ref>

Major results

;1990 : 2nd, World Championship, Track, Team Pursuit, Juniors,

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

;1991 : 2nd, World Championship, Track, Team Pursuit, Juniors ;1997 – Agro Adler : 1st, 1 stage — Niedersachsen-Rundfahrt : 1st, 1 stage —

Clásico RCN The Clásico RCN (Spanish for ''RCN Classic'') is an annual cycling road race that takes place over many stages through different regions of Colombia during October. It is organized by the Colombian Cycling Federation. The event is sponsored b ...

;1998 – Agro-Adler-Brandenburg : 1st, 2 stages —

Tour of Slovenia Tour of Slovenia is a stage race cycling race held in Slovenia. Between 2005 and 2018, it was organised as a 2.1 race on the UCI Europe Tour. The 2019 edition was classified as a 2.HC race. It became part of the UCI ProSeries in 2020. Winners ...

: 1st, 2 stages — Olympia's Ronde ;1999 – Agro-Adler-Brandenburg : 1st, 1 stage —

Peace Race The Peace Race (german: Friedensfahrt, cs, Závod míru, sk, Preteky mieru, russian: Велогонка Мира (), pl, Wyścig Pokoju , french: Course de la Paix, it, Corsa della Pace, ro, Cursa Păcii) was an annual multiple stage bicycl ...

: 1st, 1 stage — Tour of Chile : 2nd, Rund um Berlin : 2nd, National Championship, Track, Team Pursuit, Elite : 2nd, National Championship, Road, ITT, Elite : 3rd, World Championship, Track, Madison, Elite, Berlin : 3rd, General Classification,

Niedersachsen Rundfahrt The Internationale Niedersachsen–Rundfahrt is a multi-stage road bicycle race held in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was first held in 1977 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a ...

:: 1st, 1 stage ;2000 – Team Gerolsteiner : 1st, 2 stages — Rapport-Toer : 1st, 1 stage — Tour of Tasmania : 1st, National Championship, Track, Madison, Elite : 2nd, Six Days, Berlin ;2001 – Team Gerolsteiner : 1st, 2 stages — Niedersachsen-Rundfahrt : 1st —

Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt ( en, Tour of Old Town Nuremberg) is an elite men's and women's professional road bicycle racing event held each September in the old town section of Nuremberg, Germany. Past winners Women The women's event w ...

;2002 – Team Gerolsteiner : 1st overall — Groningen-Münster : 1st, General Classification — Niedersachsen-Rundfahrt :: 1st, Stage 2 and Stage 3 : 1st, Stages 1, 2, 3 —

: 1st, Points Classification —

Danmark Rundt Danmark Rundt is a Danish stage race for professional road bicycle racers organized as a part of the UCI Continental Circuits. It is currently sponsored by the Danish national postal agency, PostNord, and the race is therefore also known as PostN ...

:: 1st, Stage 5 : 1st, Groningen-Münster : 1st, Stage 1 — Hessen-Rundfahrt : 2nd,

: 2nd, Paris-Brussel : 3rd, General Classification

Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen Dwars door West-Vlaanderen is a road bicycle race through the Belgian province of West Flanders. History The race was originally created unter the name Omloop der Vlaamse Ardennen (''English'': Tour of the Flemish Ardennes) in 1945 as a one-day ...

: 3rd, Criterium, Bad Salgau ;2003 – Team Gerolsteiner : 1st, Points Classification —

Bayern Rundfahrt The International Bayern Rundfahrt ( en, Tour of Bavaria) was a stage race cycling race held each year in Bavaria, Germany, between 1980 and 2015. The race was held as an amateur race between 1980 and 1988, and from 2005 to 2015, the race was orga ...

: 1st, Stage 5 — Niedersachsen-Rundfahrt : 1st, Stage 7 —

Deutschland Tour The Deutschland Tour (English: ''Tour of Germany'' and sometimes ''Deutschland-Rundfahrt'' in German) is the most important multi-stage road bicycle race in Germany. Initially the race was held in May/June, but from 2005 until 2008 it was moved to ...

: 2nd, Krefeld-Rund um die Sparkasse : 2nd, General Classification

Tour of Qatar The Tour of Qatar was an annual professional cycling stage race held in Qatar. First organized in 2002, the event was part of the UCI Asia Tour until 2016. The 2017 edition was to have seen the event upgraded to the UCI World Tour for the first ...

: 2nd, Groningen-Münster ;2004 –

Team Gerolsteiner Gerolsteiner () was a German road bicycle racing team in the UCI ProTour. It was sponsored by the mineral water company Gerolsteiner Brunnen and Specialized. History The team was founded in 1997 as Schauff Oeschelbronn professional cycling t ...

: 1st, Stage 2 —

Sachsen-Tour The Sachsen Tour is a multi-stage road bicycle race held in the region of Saxony, Germany. It was first held in 1985 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicy ...

: 1st (after Stage 1),

— Giro d'Italia :: 112th, General Classification : 2nd, Criterium, Radevormwald ;2005 – T-Mobile Team ;2006 –

T-Mobile Team T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic (T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland (T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobile ...

: Giro d'Italia :: 3rd,

points classification The points classification is a secondary award category in road bicycle racing. Points are given for high finishes and, in some cases, for winning sprints at certain places along the route, most often called ''intermediate sprints''. The points cl ...

:: 132nd, General Classification :

Tour of California The Tour of California (officially sponsored as the Amgen Tour of California) was an annual professional road bicycle racing, road cycling stage race on the UCI World Tour and USA Cycling Professional Tour that ran from 2006 to 2019. It was the ...

:: 1st, Stages 6 & 7 :: 1st, Points Classification (

Green Jersey In road bicycle racing (e.g. Grand Tour stage races) the green jersey is a distinctive racing jersey worn by the most consistent highest finisher in the competition. While the overall race leader in the Tour de France will wear the yellow jer ...

) : 1st, Stage 1 Cologne Classic : 1st, Stage 4

Post Danmark Rundt Danmark Rundt is a Denmark, Danish stage race for professional road bicycle racers organized as a part of the UCI Continental Circuits. It is currently sponsored by the Danish national postal agency, PostNord, and the race is therefore also known ...

: 2nd, Criterium, Radevormwald ;2007 –

Team Wiesenhof–Felt A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to info ...

: 1st, Stage 1,

Critérium International The Critérium International was a two-day bicycle stage race held in France every spring from 1932 until 2016, typically the last weekend of March. It was formerly known as the Critérium National de la Route, first run in 1932. For many years ...

: 1st, Rheda-Wiedenbrück : 1st, Dahme Trophy : 2nd, Derny Cup, Griessen : 2nd, National Championship, Track, Pursuit, Elite, Germany, Berlin : 2nd, National Championship, Track, Team Pursuit, Elite, Germany, Berlin : 2nd, National Championship, Track, Madison, Elite, Germany, Berlin : 2nd, Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt, Nürnberg : 3rd, Six Days, Stuttgart ;2008 : 3rd, World Cup, Track, Madison, Los Angeles

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pollack, Olaf 1973 births Living people People from Bautzen (district) People from Bezirk Dresden German male cyclists German track cyclists Cyclists from Saxony Olympic cyclists of Germany Cyclists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Recipients of the Silver Laurel Leaf Cyclists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Doping cases in cycling German sportspeople in doping cases Olympic gold medalists for Germany Olympic medalists in cycling Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics