At the very top, Maximilian Schachmann was back where he wanted to be: On the Alto do Malhão - a panoramic mountain with a view of the Atlantic coast in the south of Portugal. He finished fifth in the final individual time trial of the Tour of the Algarve. A stage consisting of a classic battle against the clock and a final climb with a gradient of up to 14 per cent - with the finish at the point where he fought a fierce battle with Remco Evenepoel for the stage and overall victory in 2020. "I came from an altitude training programme. It was my first race with the team. I can be satisfied with everything. There's still a lot to do - but it's a promising result in a strong field of riders," was his verdict after the work was done. He managed fifth place in the daily classification after just under 20 kilometres - 30 seconds behind winner Jonas Vingegaard and 19 seconds behind second-placed Wout Van Aert, just ahead of the ambitious local hero João Almeida. He also took fifth place in the overall standings after five stages. It was a good start to the year. "I had a good winter, I feel super comfortable here in the team," Schachmann had already told TOUR before the start.
Maximilian Schachmann back at his old haunt
For the now 31-year-old German, the 2025 season means a new start - and a return. He will be riding for Team Soudal Quick-Step in the new season. "I realised that Quick-Step really wanted me and valued me. That was the decisive reason for switching back," said the two-time German road race champion, explaining his motives for swapping jerseys and employers. He started his professional career with the Belgian racing team in 2017 and then rode in the Bora-hansgrohe jersey for six years. Schachmann was like other top German pros who lacked the appreciation of their home team. Lennard Kämna left for Lidl-Trek, Emanuel Buchmann wants to put in another great performance at the Tour de France with Cofidis. They all realised that they would not be continuing with their old employer. German riders are no longer particularly important to team boss Ralph Denk. He thinks and plans internationally.
Important helper for Remco Evenepoel
At Quickstep, where the recently departed team boss Patrick Lefevere was once reluctant to let the talented Berliner go, they wanted him back - in a special role: he is to become an important domestique alongside Belgian cycling star Remco Evenepoel, supporting the ambitions of last year's Olympic time trial champion, Vuelta winner and Tour de France bronze medallist. Schachmann's own ambitions for a top place in the overall classification of a three-week tour are no longer on the cards. "It would be something special in my career to ride in a team that wins the Tour de France or finishes on the podium," says the versatile professional cyclist, and sees himself in the future at the highest level in a helper role in a perhaps future "super team" that can take on the outstanding escort of Tadej Pogačar at the Tour on behalf of leader Evenepoel.
Opportunities for own results
But the family man, who now lives in Andorra, should have his own chances of achieving top results: The first highlight is the stage race Paris-Nice (9 to 16 March to 2025). He won the overall classification there twice in 2020 and 2021, but after the Olympic Games in summer 2021 were postponed due to the pandemic, he fell into a performance slump - from which he had to work his way out with great effort. Occasional strong performances showed that Schachmann still has the potential to ride at the very front, or has done so again - like last year on stage 1 of the Giro d'Italia, when he was only narrowly defeated by Jhonatan Narváez (INEOS Grenadiers) in the battle for the stage win and left Tadej Pogačar behind him in a three-man sprint.
Cycling is getting faster and faster
Five years ago, he fought a thrilling battle with Evenepoel for overall victory in the Tour of the Algarve, the most important cycling race in Portugal. His great performances from 2019 to 2021 recently seemed like they were from a completely different era. And when Schachmann talks about the past and present, it also sounds like there's a lot more time in between: "It's no secret that the level of cycling has changed a lot. It has simply become much faster, even on the climbs." In other words: the professional cyclist does not know whether it will be enough to achieve the same outstanding results as in the past.
Maximilian Schachmann's racing programme: Many classic starts plus the Tour on the horizon
The Tour of the Algarve was the warm-up. Paris-Nice will be followed by appearances at Milan-San Remo, the Tour of the Basque Country (where he won three stages in 2019), the Ardennes classics Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège and finally Eschborn-Frankfurt. For the summer months, Schachmann is still on the relatively long list of contenders for a starting place in the Tour de France. His team is currently wondering whether leader Evenepoel will be fit in time after a serious training accident and whether he will have the necessary form for the clash with Pogačar and Vingegaard. And in the autumn, the multiple leader of the German national team also sees a World Cup start in Rwanda on the horizon - if the year goes well. "It's primarily about simply riding a consistent year, at my best level," he says - it sounds cautiously like a complicated year. Paris-Nice will be the first important stage in determining Maximilian Schachmann's future path as part of the "wolf pack", as the Soudal Quick-Step team likes to call itself. On the eight stages through France, Schachmann will probably have to deal with top-class competition: two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), his highly talented team-mate Matteo Jorgenson, two-time world champion Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling Team), Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) and João Almeida (UAE) have announced their participation. For Schachmann, the question arises, also in comparison with team-mate Ilan Van Wilder: Will he make it to the lead pack?
Andreas Kublik
Editor
