Florian Lipowitz attracted the full attention of German cycling fans in 2025. His successful Tour de France premiere sparked a cycling fever in the media back home. Who are the other German riders who could ensure success in 2026? Our top list of German riders to keep an eye on with a special look at rising talents.
Is German cycling on the rise again? For the first time in many years, two German teams will be racing in the World Tour again. In addition to Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe with Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz, the Lidl-Trek racing team will also have a German licence in future. Tour stage winner Lennard Kämna is one of the riders on the team. A look at German professional cyclists who are under particular scrutiny this season:
Florian Lipowitz
The greatest hopes of German cycling fans are pinned on Lipowitz - although it is still unclear what role he will be assigned this season. Last season, Florian Lipowitz (25) really took off. He finished third in his first Tour de France, won the white jersey for the best young rider and was labelled one of the best climbers in the world. The new German cycling favourite will have to live up to high expectations and pressure this season. It will also be exciting to see how the roles are distributed in the newly formed team. New signing Remco Evenepoel will significantly change the team structure at Red-Bull-Bora-hansgrohe. What role Lipowitz will be assigned in the Grand Tours and what he can fulfil will be one of the exciting questions of the season. Three months before the start of the Tour of France, the German cycling hopeful is in good form: his third place overall behind the outstanding Jonas Vingegaard and the Frenchman Lenny Martinez in the difficult Tour of Catalonia was a pointer for the Tour de France.
Pascal Ackermann
At 32, Pascal Ackermann is one of the veterans in the World Tour peloton. Last season was very difficult for him. At the Tour de la Provence stage race in France, he crashed in the final sprint and injured his knee, which threw his plans for the season into disarray. The constant protests and threats against his former team Israel - Premier Tech also caused stress. He will be pleased to be able to concentrate on sporting matters again with his new team Jayco AlUla. Ackermann brings with him the experience of six Grand Tours and has 41 successes in his palmarès. A rider you always have to have on your radar in the sprint. His biggest dream is to win a stage at the Tour de France. He has already achieved this three times in the Giro.
Maximilian Schachmann
Schachmann won Paris-Nice twice and four stage victories at the Giro d'Italia - his rise in professional cycling was initially meteoric. In 2022, his streak of success broke and he battled many phases of illness and things no longer went smoothly at Team Bora-hansgrohe. Like Lennard Kämna and Emanuel Buchmann, he left the team. Last year, he switched to Team Soudal Quick-Step and is hoping for new great moments on the bike in his second year. The start to the new 2026 season was painful. Schachmann, together with France's three-time world champion Julian Alaphilippe, tried to escape in the Tour of the Algarve and was 1:45 minutes ahead of the peloton at the time of his crash. Around 35 kilometres before the finish, Schachmann slipped off in a long left-hand bend on a descent. Fortunately, he escaped serious injury. He was not in the line-up for Paris-Nice.
Max Kanter
At 28, Max Kanter from the XDS Astana team is no longer a young talent - he has been gaining experience in the WorldTour for years via the Sunweb, DSM, Movistar and Astana teams. The rider from Cottbus has already competed four times in the Giro d'Italia and can score points with his sprints, especially in one-day races. He started the season with a second place at the Trofeo Palma and a third place at the Ronde Van Brugge. His palmarès does not yet include any major successes, but he is currently one of the best Germans in the UCI annual rankings.
Georg Steinhauser
Counted among the promising talents, but had a difficult 2025 season. His start to the current racing season, however, went perfectly. Steinhauser surprisingly finished third in Paris-Nice and thus achieved the biggest stage race success of his career. On top of that, the 24-year-old secured the white jersey of the best young professional, succeeding Florian Lipowitz, who finished second last year.
Lennard Kämna
Lennard Kämna has yet to achieve any major successes since returning to the saddle at the start of 2024 following his terrible training accident in Tenerife. However, last year's Tour de Suisse showed that the former Tour and Giro stage winner is back among the world's elite. He finished sixth overall and was in the title race for a long time at the subsequent German Championships, finishing within sight of the new champion Georg Zimmermann. Following the signing of the new tour leader Juan Ayuso, who finally wants to step out of the shadow of Tadej Pogacar at Lidl-Trek, he is likely to play a role as a noble helper in difficult races such as the Basque Country and probably also the Tour de France.
Anton Schiffer
Anton Schiffer from Cologne surprised everyone in 2025 by winning a stage at the Sibiu Cycling Tour and finishing third at the German Championships. This earned him a move from the Continental team Bike Aid to the World Tour team Team Visma | Lease a Bike. "I haven't had a coach my whole cycling life, I've always trained myself," he revealed in the TOUR interview. The fact that his training has brought him this far is also due to his background: he is a sports scientist. Alongside Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert, he is experiencing his first season on the big cycling stage and has to prove himself at a different level. He started the season at the Tour Down Under. The mountain specialist is hoping to take part in a grand tour. Schiffer was able to show his strong performance at the Settimana Coppi e Bartali (2.1): he finished the tour in fifth place overall.
Emil Herzog
Herzog is considered one of the most exciting German talents - he switched to the professional camp in 2024. In the current season, the 21-year-old finished third in the young rider classification of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali and crossed the finish line in second place on stage 5 of the Volta Comunitat Valenciana. At Strade Bianche, he was the best German in 83rd place, 16:38 minutes behind winner Pogacar.
Felix Engelhardt
Felix Engelhardt made a name for himself in 2021 by winning the sprint classification at the Tour of the Alps. In 2022, he won the European Championship title in the U23 road race. and in the 2024 Tour of Slovakia, he won the queen stage with the mountain arrival in Strbske Pleso - ahead of his Jayco AlUla team-mate Mauro Schmid and two-time world champion Julian Alaphilippe. He finished second in the DM 2025 road race. As Pascal Ackermann's team-mate at Team Jayco AlUla, 25-year-old Felix Engelhardt has made a good start to the season. He has not always coped well with the heat in the past and hopes to be among the front runners in the classics such as the Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Kristian Bauer
Editor
