Formative families in cycling - the Zabels: Collectors of green jerseys & social media followers

Rick Zabel became famous even before his professional career. There were the regular visits to the Tour de France podium in Paris when father Erik Zabel once again won the green jersey in the Tour of France. It was not uncommon for the young Rick Zabel to sit on his father's shoulders with his hair dyed green - pictures that were captured by the world press.

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Less pleasing, however, was the second context in which Rick Zabel came into focus early on. He could no longer lie to his son, was one of the reasons Erik Zabel gave for his first public doping confession in 2007. However, the father had only revealed part of the truth, followed by another - more comprehensive - confession in 2013 about years of doping practices.

Rick Zabel as a sprinter like his father Erik Zabel

His father's mistakes were discussed at length in the Zabel family, as son Rick once reported. After all, he himself was on the road to becoming a professional cyclist from 2013. "I saw from my dad how far you can fall. I'm glad that I'm a professional at a time when you can be fast without doping," Rick Zabel told the Berliner Zeitung at the start of his professional career.

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Through the renowned Rabobank talent factory, he landed his first professional contract with Team BMC in 2014. And like his father, Rick Zabel excelled as a strong sprinter, taking his first victory in 2015 at a mass finish of the Tour of Austria - fittingly on the day of Erik Zabel's 45th birthday.

Erik Zabel the green dominator of the Tour de France

However, he never equalled his father's success. Erik Zabel was regarded as one of the best sprinters of the 1990s and won the Tour de France green jersey six times between 1996 and 2001 - a record that was only surpassed by Peter Sagan a few years ago with seven green jerseys. In addition, there are twelve stage wins at the Tour, eight more at the Vuelta a Espana and four successes at Milan-San Remo. His CV includes around 200 race victories. His son Rick Zabel currently has two career victories: His victory in Austria was followed by a stage win at the Tour of Yorkshire in 2019.

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Nevertheless, he is currently one of the most popular riders in Germany: with his podcast "Plan Z", as a so-called "content creator" on social media and with other cycling projects, Rick Zabel has now built up a second professional mainstay. Zabel has 197,000 followers on Instagram. No active German rider has more. He will enter his eleventh year as a professional in 2024 with the Israel-Premier Tech team.

Rick and Erik Zabel in a team with Katusha

In 2019, father and son even belonged to the same team for a year. After his doping confession, Erik Zabel returned to professional cycling at Katusha-Alpecin as the so-called performance director, and Rick Zabel also rode for the team that year. "It was strange at first. But it's actually like when I was young, when he was there as an advisor," said Rick Zabel at the time. However, the collaboration only lasted a year, as Katusha ended its involvement at the end of the season. Zabel now works for the bike manufacturer Canyon.

Meanwhile, the Zabels' family history in cycling goes back even further: Erik Zabel's father Detlef was also once a racing cyclist and took part in the Peace Tour for the GDR in the 1950s.