April 13, 2004 – The sun was shining today in Koln, Germany for the 89th Rund um Koln, and also for Kirk O'Bee of the Navigators Insurance squad. Kirk showed his finishing speed at the end of the 202Km race by taking third place in a photo finish behind Erik Zabel (T-Mobile) and Danilo Hondo (Gerolsteiner), from a lead group of 19.

The race is immensely popular and was attended by all of the major teams and riders from Germany, including ex-Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich. The popularity of the race is evidenced by the large groups of fans through the entire racecourse, in addition to the live; start to finish TV coverage broadcast throughout Germany.

The weather greeting the riders at the start was a nice change from the past few weeks with temps in the mid-60's (F) and mostly sunny. The racing action began with a fast pace, and none of the numerous attacks could gain an advantage until the 47Km mark, as a group of eight were able to move clear of the large peloton of 26 teams.

With representation of T-Mobile, Gerolsteiner and several of the other German teams, the breakaway gained up to 4 minutes by the 100Km point over the roads that kept the riders working hard as they had three point-sprints and 12 KOM climbs, in addition to the many other smaller hills, before heading back into the city. It wasn't until the race reached 125Km that any other attacks were able to gain on the peloton. Koos Morenhout (Lotto-Dome) and Bjorn Leukemans (Mr. Bookmaker-Palmans) worked their way up the road and slowly closed on the eight leaders, which were now down to a lead of just 2:35.

With the large field of riders now breaking apart from the fast pace and the many climbs, the next selection from the field came at 150Km in the form of an elite group of 11. Navigators' Kirk O'Bee escaped with all of the major players in the race and they quickly set their sights on the leaders. In the group with Kirk were; Erik Zabel and Christian Werner (both T-Mobile), Hondo and Ronny Scholz (both Gerolsteiner), Nico Slijmans (Landbouwkredit), Kurt Van Der Wouwer (Mr. Bookmaker), Jef Peters (Vlanderen), Theo Eltnik (Rabobank), Borik Bozc (Perutinina), and Luke Robert (Comnet).

The 11 chasers soon caught the two that were still in 'no-mans-land' and continued toward the leaders, and the three 5Km-finishing circuits. With no more climbs left, it was the strong and fast men that were going to come to the finish in the best position. The gap between the two groups was down to: 40 with only 15Km left to race. The teams with the advantage were T-Mobile and Gerolsteiner as they had a total of three riders each, in the front. On the final lap through the finish, the gap was down to:20 and there was only 5Km left to get the job done. Over the city circuits, and in front of the huge crowds, the gap was finally closed just 3Km from the line. The sprinters then began to setup for the final run-in to the finish line and the glory. The first to jump was O'Bee at 200M, and then Hondo went with Zabel on his wheel. At 20M, Zabel blasted past and at the line in a photo finish it was Hondo by a hair for 2nd place. For O'Bee and the Navigators team, it was a good day to celebrate the return of the sunshine.

The next stop for the men-in-blue will be the Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen, back in Belgium, on Wednesday. Following this race, the squad heads back to the U.S. for the Dodge Tour of Georgia, and the rest of the North American racing calendar.