Simon Geschke (Cofidis) fulfilled every request for autographs or selfies. After his tears in the Pyrenees, the almost mountain king has found his laughter again, and compatriot Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) named him the "Winner of Hearts" without further ado.
Geschke wins favour at the Tour de France
The man with the full beard may have lost the battle for the mountains jersey at the Tour de France, but he won a lot of favour. "I think I put on a good show. I seem to have gained a lot of fans. I obviously haven't done everything wrong over the last few weeks," said Geschke in his typical Berlin manner.
He even did a lot of things right. For nine days in a row, Geschke picked up the mountains jersey on the big podium and thus provided the highlight from a German perspective at the Tour de France. The fact that in the end a single mountain classification went in favour of patron Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) was the deciding factor, somehow fitting for the performance of the smallest German Tour group in 20 years with nine riders.
Tour de France of missed opportunities
It was a tour of missed opportunities. Lennard Kämna missed out on the yellow jersey in Megeve only a tiny eleven secondsand the North German missed out on the stage win in La Planche des Belles Filles by less than 100 metres. Nevertheless, Kämna, who had dropped out after the second rest day due to a cold, was one of the winners among the German riders.
The 25-year-old is even expected to captain the Bora-hansgrohe team in the future. "We will discuss with him whether we dare to ride for the overall classification in a Grand Tour. But there's no pressure from the team. Lennie is always an enrichment for us, no matter what role he plays," said team boss Ralph Denk to the German Press Agency.
Last time no German stage win in 2019
The last time the Germans were without a stage win was in 2019. Gone are the days when sprint stars like André Greipel or Marcel Kittel spoilt German cycling fans with victories. Geschke is therefore a little worried about the future. "It's not a nice development. After the big scandals, the junior races in Germany have all been cancelled. As a young German rider, it's super difficult to make the leap into the pro ranks. It's not going to get any better over the next few years," the 36-year-old told the dpa.
Geschke is still in the mood
It's a good thing that Geschke still feels like it after ten Tour appearances. "I think when I've processed everything, I'll get in touch in the winter and ask if I can ride the Tour," said the 2015 Tour stage winner and joked: "I'm still a young rider, maybe there'll be more to come in the next few years."
Two-time German champion Maximilian Schachmann, who has not yet found his luck at the Tour, is also hoping for this. In 2019 he suffered a broken metacarpal, in 2020 he went into the race with a broken collarbone and this year it was a coronavirus infection shortly before and a crash shortly after the start.
Team-mate Politt was unable to repeat his good fortune from last year, partly because he had to help Aleksandr Vlasov, who finished fifth overall, on the cobblestones. Classics specialist John Degenkolb also had similar duties with the DSM team. So it remained with the winner of hearts. "There's no trophy for that in Paris," said Geschke, but his autographs now have a completely different value.
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