Michael Schär has been a professional cyclist for 18 years. The 1.98 metre man from Switzerland only has a conspicuously short list of victories. He can only celebrate a victory twice. In 2013 he became national road race champion, and a year later he won a stage of the Tour of Utah. Nevertheless, the respect in the peloton for Schär is huge.
There is no other explanation for the fact that on 12 June 2023 in the Swiss village of Beromünster, almost an entire field of riders will line up in two rows, put their racing bikes on the rear wheel and form a lane. The peloton stands guard - for Michael Schär. It pays tribute to him for a great career, which he has completed entirely as a helper from start to finish. Instead of celebrating his own victories, Schär raises his arms when his captain crosses the finish line as the winner.
Schär's special relationship with van Avermaet
And yet, as the rumour persists, Schär could have ridden to victory himself. Certainly not in Grand Tours, but possibly in one or two classics. Or even in the time trial. He never put this into practice. He would much rather ride alongside his current friend Greg van Avermaet. Or rather: in front of him in the wind.
The Swiss and the Belgian met at BMC in 2011. The future Olympic champion joined the team at the start of the season, while Schär had been with the team for a year. He previously rode for three seasons with Team Astana, before that he spent six months with Phonak. Schär and van Avermaet will spend the rest of their careers with the same team. After BMC folded in 2018, they both joined the successor team CCC, then AG2R two years later.
Van Avermaet ends his career in 2023. Is it pure coincidence that Schär is also calling it a day after the season? Not necessarily. The Luzerner Zeitung says Schär in May, when he announces the end of his career at the age of 36, his wattage is better than it was five years ago. But the job is done. He faithfully accompanied his captain until his last race. The Paris-Tours in the autumn will be the last race for both of them. That's not just a coincidence either. This is where they celebrated their first major victory together in 2011.
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"My primary goal has always been to contribute to the team's success and support our leaders," Schär wrote in a statement on Instagram. "And I am proud of what we have achieved together." Together with van Avermaet, he has achieved many victories in one-day races. However, he was absent from the Belgian's greatest successes. Schär was not at the start of the 2016 Olympic victory and his background would not have allowed him to work together to the usual extent. A year later at Paris-Roubaix, the Swiss rider was absent because he broke his collarbone earlier in the season.
"There are many helpers in cycling who also strive for good results themselves. That was never the case with him," says van Avermaet to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. "He sacrificed himself 100 per cent for me. That's what made him so great. He was always available, he looked after others, he had good advice."
Schär one of the few victims of the "bottle rule"
Schär even has some good advice for the UCI in 2021. On 1 April of this year, the UCI introduced a new rule that prohibits, among other things, drinking bottles from being thrown away outside the introduced "litter zones" - even though, as a popular souvenir among fans, they are never left on the roadside anyway.
Four days later, it's the Tour of Flanders. Schär has not yet internalised the rule or deliberately ignores it when he throws his water bottle at the feet of some fans in a bend. He is immediately disqualified for this, as one of the first riders ever to apply this rule. But also one of the last. After the race, he wrote an emotional statement on Instagram. "I remember it like it was yesterday. My parents drove my sister and me to the Tour de France in the Jura in 1997. We drove to the route and waited in the middle of the crowds," he begins the entry, which reveals how he got into cycling himself.
Young "Michi" is delighted with the atmosphere at the side of the track. "I also got a water bottle from a pro. This little piece of plastic made my cycling addiction complete. I rode every day with my yellow Team Polti bottle. Every day." Now he is a professional himself and rides through the cheering spectators. "In quiet racing moments, I always keep my empty bottles until I see children at the side of the road. These are the moments I love our sport for. Nobody can take that away from us. We are the most accessible sport that gives away bottles in between. It's as simple as that. Cycling is as simple as that," he writes.
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Schär's emotional statement softens UCI rule
The post goes through the channels, is liked thousands of times and spread further and further. There is widespread criticism on social media of Schär's exclusion for giving up a bottle. Other riders and the media joined in. And finally the UCI relents.
Just ten days after Schär's disqualification, the world governing body corrects its penalties. From now on, smaller fines and point deductions will be applied if riders dispose of bottles outside the designated zones. Disqualifications will only be imposed after repeated offences against the rule.
Otherwise, Schär himself makes few headlines. It's his captains. Cadel Evans, for example, who won the Tour de France in 2011 with the Swiss rider at his side. Schär was 25 years old at the time. He describes the Australian's victory as one of his greatest successes in cycling. And the victories in the team time trials at the 2015 and 2018 Tour with BMC also rank highly.
Four red bibs for Michael Schär
In any case, the Grand Loop plays a key role in Schär's career, which once again reflects his importance in the peloton. Not everyone rides the Tour eleven times, especially not in a row. Between 2011 and 2021, Schär will spend every July in France. After his time at BMC, where he first looked after Evans, then Tejay van Garderen and finally Richie Porte, his role as a helper at CCC and AG2R is expanding.
He helps his teams, who start without any hope of finishing in the overall standings, by showcasing the sponsors in breakaway groups. In both of his CCC years in 2019 and 2020, he was represented in breakaway groups at the start of the Tour and secured the red start number, even on stage 1 on the second occasion. That takes pressure off the team. At his only Tour in the AG2R jersey in 2021 and even in his last year at BMC, he was once voted the most combative rider on a stage.
Schär will also be a helper at home in future
Back in Beromünster. For the man from Geuensee in the canton of Lucerne, the small town is almost on his doorstep. The second stage of the Tour de Suisse, which starts there, is virtually his own. He knows nothing of the trellis that Stefan Küng, another friend from his BMC days, is arranging with many messages via WhatsApp or Instagram. "It gave me goosebumps. Stefan had organised it quietly and secretly and I knew nothing about it. It was very emotional," he says, describing the scene after the stage, in which he once again presented himself as a breakaway rider over 150 kilometres.
The children's bike that he gets to ride through the lane of professional cyclists is a sign for the young family man, who has had two children for not so long. He wants to take better care of them in future, spend more time with them, help not only in a field full of professional cyclists, but also at home. "With the births of my two sons, my life has already changed in the last two years and my family has become more central. But as a professional cyclist, you spend more than 200 days a year abroad. That's not really compatible with a young family," says Schär in an interview with the news agency Keystone-SDA.
However, he has already announced that he will remain involved in cycling. From the new season, he will be working as sports director for Lidl-Trek, mainly in the men's team.
Michael Schär's greatest successes
- Swiss road race champion (2013)
- Stage winner at the Tour of Utah (2014)
- Second overall in the Tour des Fjords (2016)
- Third overall in the Sachsen Tour (2009)
- Victory with the team in the Tour de France team time trial (2015, 2018)
- Eleven consecutive participations in the Tour de France (2011 to 2021)
