By Patrick Reichardt, dpa
An astonishing attack on the legendary Col du Tourmalet, a podium finish in the Vélodrome of Roubaix and sprint victories galore for a great hope.
You don't have to look back to the doping-infested era of Jan Ullrich and Erik Zabel to remember such successes in German cycling. It's enough to look back to 2019, when the new generation around Emanuel Buchmann, Nils Politt and co. suddenly achieved great things. "If you look at the statistics, 2019 was a really big year for German cycling," said Bora-hansgrohe team boss Ralph Denk to the German Press Agency.
Thanks to Buchmann's fourth place at the Tour de France, Politt's brilliant second place at Paris-Roubaix and a few victories by sprinter Pascal Ackermann, cycling Germany dreamed of triumphs and titles in grand tours and classics - just like before, only without the flavour. However, many of the high expectations were not fulfilled ahead of Eschborn-Frankfurt, the first major home race in 2022 this Sunday. "Those were not the easiest years for German cycling," Denk realistically categorises.
Different concerns
Just a small dip or a major low? Denk points out that the individual cases are fundamentally different. Firstly, the pandemic brought the entire World Tour to a standstill for several months in spring 2020. Then Germany's hopefuls had to contend with different problems: Tour fourth-placed Buchmann was repeatedly plagued by bad luck, but after a difficult year he is now set to shine at the Giro d'Italia.
Ackermann struggled with fluctuations in form and publicly argued with the team management. Giant talent Lennard Kämna first complained of physical problems and later of a mental block. The 25-year-old was out of action for a long time and is now gradually making a comeback.
Functionary Denk describes 2019 as a "brilliant year", but also calls for realism. "We don't have the concentration of talent that some other countries have. It's a huge bureaucratic hurdle to organise bike races in Germany," said the Bavarian. The smaller talent pool, the regulatory hurdles and the much greater enthusiasm for cycling in other countries are problems that are likely to become even more pronounced in the medium and long term than they are at present.
Ackermann absent in Frankfurt
Denk cited Maximilian Schachmann, who won the Tour of Paris-Nice in 2020 and 2021, as an explicit ray of hope, thus ensuring the greatest German successes of the recent past. Kämna (2020) and Politt (2021) also secured stage wins at the Tour de France.
Now the famous race to finish the classics season in Frankfurt, where Politt and veteran John Degenkolb are considered contenders for victory. This could serve as a good omen for the Germans: For the first time since 2019, the classic has not been postponed due to coronavirus and will once again take place on the traditional May Day date.
The last time this was the case, sprinter Ackermann won. The Palatinate rider is missing this time due to an injury. "Medical examinations have revealed a fracture to his coccyx from an earlier fall. He will now recover in order to return quickly," said his team UAE Emirates.
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