How the top talents fared in 2023: Brenner's delicate upswing thwarted by insoles
Sebastian Lindner
· 10.12.2023
If it is insoles at the end of a season that make the most far-reaching headlines about an athlete, then it goes without saying that the sporting highlights were rather few and far between. It was exactly the same for Marco Brenner in 2023, which was also not the youngster's breakthrough year in the professional game.
Perhaps Marco Brenner now regrets his big leap from the juniors straight into the dsm-firmenich World Tour team. The Augsburg native, who was spoilt with victories as a junior, has now been a professional for three years - at the age of 21. However, instead of going up the career ladder last season, it took him down.
Brenner's self-help costs him the Vuelta
Brenner only managed four top 10 results. Sixth place at the German Road Championships was the best result he achieved. June was his strongest phase of the season anyway. At the Criterium du Dauphine shortly before that, he achieved two more decent results with 9th and 10th place on the first two undulating stages. Brenner was able to make his mark, as he did in the last days of May, when he finished ninth in the prologue at the Tour of Norway and later tenth overall.
It seemed as if the young German had finally found his stride. The problem that had been bothering him until then had been found and solved. Late effects of an accident with a tractor in 2020, when Brenner was still a junior, are said to have caused poor posture and thus tension, which had a negative impact on his performance. In June, Brenner tweaked his sitting position slightly and got insoles for his shoes. With success: the results improved.
However, Marco Brenner acted on his own initiative. And this did not go down well at all with the strictly organised dsm-firmenich team. When his actions, which were apparently perceived as presumptuous, became known, the Dutch team withdrew the great talent from the squad a week before the start of the Vuelta a Espana. "Of course I'm very disappointed because I was nominated for a long time and have now been taken off the team at short notice. But I can understand it somehow. The team has its principles, and they take precedence over everything else," Brenner told the Augsburger Allgemeine and tried to come across as reasonably diplomatic. However, the fact that dsm did not give him an alternative race programme - the Tour of Germany would have been the obvious choice - was a great disappointment for the youngster.
Can Marco Brenner make a fresh start in Switzerland?
He completed three more race days in September - bringing his total to just 46 - with a DNF on two of them. Then the season was over. And that probably also applies to the broken working and trusting relationship between rider and team. Brenner still has a contract with the Dutch team until 2024. It is still his first, he had signed for four years as a neo-pro. However, there are increasing rumours that Brenner will move to Switzerland ahead of schedule. Neither side has officially confirmed it yet, but there is a good chance that he will be racing for the Tudor Pro Cycling Team next year.
And thus a league lower, because the team of former pro Fabian Cancellara is equipped with a pro licence. However, this should help rather than hinder Marco Brenner's faltering career. Smaller races, greater chances of success: For the highly talented rider's battered self-confidence, this should be worth more next year than finishing another Grand Tour in no man's land in the rankings.
