Maximilian Walscheid in a TOUR interview: "I never thought about becoming a professional"

Personal details: Maximilian Richard Walscheid (Germany)

• Born: 13 September 1993 in Neuwied
• Size: 1.99 metres
• Weight: 90 kilogrammes
• Place of residence: Heidelberg
• Professional since: 2016
• Teams: Cycling Team Rheinland-Pfalz/ Saarland (2011), Team Raiko-Stölting/ Team Stölting (2012-2014), Team Kuota-Lotto (2015), Team Giant-Alpecin/Team Sunweb (2016-2019), NTT Pro Cycling/Team Qhubeka Next-Hash (2020-2021), Cofidis (2022-2023), Team Jayco AlUla (2024-2025)
• Important successes: 2014 German Road Champion (U23), 2016 5 stage wins Tour of Hainan, 2017 stage win Tour of Denmark, 2018 Münsterland Giro, stage win Tour de Yorkshire, 2019 Omloop van het Houtland, 2020 2 stage wins Tour de Langkawi, 2021 World champion and European Championship runner-up mixed team time trial, 2022 GP Denain, 2023 World and European Championship third mixed team time trial, 2024 Stage win Tour of Slovakia (MZF), European Championship second mixed MZF, Omloop van het Houtland
• Maximilian Walscheid also publishes the cycling podcast Radio RTW

Interview with Maximilian Walscheid

TOUR: Maximilian, when people google your name, they find photos and a video of an unofficial "World record". You rode the longest wheelie on a Pyrenean pass at the 2021 Tour de France. With a height of just under two metres and a weight of around 90 kilos, isn't riding a pass at the Tour hard enough on two wheels?

Maximilian Walscheid: The initiators of the Tour de Tietema YouTube channel publicised the event on social media at the time. Someone who knew that I was good on the back wheel drew my attention to the fact that this challenge would take place on a particular mountain.

TOUR: It was on the last climb of the day, the Col de Beixalis, on the 15th stage to Andorra - after 4500 metres in altitude. Did you still have the necessary strength and muscle coordination?

Maximilian Walscheid: I was in the group that had formed around Mark Cavendish, who was wearing the green jersey at the time. It was definitely a very tough stage, but I still felt okay to finish within the time limit. That's why I just gave it a go.

TOUR: You completed 174 metres on the back wheel - no other Tour participant managed more. The following year, you improved the wheelie record to 1420 metres for the Dutch Youtubers on the rest day in Morzine. What was the motivation?

Maximilian Walscheid: First and foremost, it really was the fun. The organisers of the Tour de Tietema always create a great atmosphere along the route.

TOUR: We've now started from the back - with the Gruppetto. Let's look ahead: What are your goals for 2025? Do you want to be right at the front and make headlines with good results?

Maximilian Walscheid: As far as good results are concerned, Paris-Roubaix is definitely my focus. I would also like to win a race again and simply ride top-class races. The team has given me a very good race calendar. I also have justified hopes of being back at the Tour de France.

TOUR: What makes Paris-Roubaix so valuable, so fascinating for you?

Maximilian Walscheid: I would simply say that it is an inhumanly tough race and takes place over a course that is actually unimaginable. So I can really only recommend every cycling fan to go and watch it. Ideally, you should ride your bike over the five-star sectors (the toughest cobbled sections; editor's note) yourself. Then you'll get some idea of what actually happens in the race. And of course I'm also fascinated by the importance of this race in our sport, the prestige.

TOUR: Tall, heavy, strong acceleration, lots of power, good time trial qualities - you could say you were always predestined for this race. In fact, you only appeared at the top of the results lists late in your career. Is there an explanation?

Maximilian Walscheid: I was already planned for Roubaix as a neo-pro. But a lot of things went wrong. In the very first year of my career, we had the serious accident at the Giant-Alpecin training camp in which I broke my leg (in 2016, six riders, including Walscheid and John Degenkolb, were hit by a car in Spain and in some cases seriously injured; editor's note). The racing accident at the Schelde Prize followed a year later. But I also have to say: I wouldn't have been good enough back then to be able to compete in such a tough, 260-kilometre race. My performance wasn't good enough at the beginning of my career. It took me a few years to get this good. And of course the race is great for me because it's the only Monument where I can ride for the music.

TOUR: You talk about focussing on your own results. How important is that for you, who often has to fulfil helper duties? In your 2024 season review, you emphasised how nice and important your only win of the season at the Omloop van het Houtland in Belgium was.

Maximilian Walscheid: My goal is to win at least one race every year. It's important for me to keep my nose for victory and also to show those around me that I can still win. Basically, my work is divided into two areas: Into my own results on the one hand, but now also increasingly into helper tasks.

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TOUR: Has it become more difficult, more exhausting, more complicated for a tall and heavy rider like you in modern cycling, with an extremely aggressive riding style and very early attacks by the favourites?

Maximilian Walscheid: It's definitely getting harder - quite objectively measurable. I have adapted in many ways. As far as values such as watts per kilogramme on the mountain are concerned, you simply have to ride a lot harder today than you did ten years ago. I used to achieve good results, but that would no longer be possible today, in the same races with the same values, because everyone is better.

TOUR: Did you adapt more in terms of watts or kilograms?

Maximilian Walscheid: I have improved in terms of performance. I definitely haven't improved in terms of the absolute number on the scales. But my body composition has changed a bit by building up muscle and losing fat. With six per cent body fat, you can perhaps lose another kilogramme of weight, but whether that makes sense in terms of your private life is doubtful. I would always prefer to lose weight earlier than to be a 60-kilogramme starving hook.

TOUR: Speaking of being left behind: you haven't taken part in the Tour de France in the past two years. What is harder - being there or having to watch?

Maximilian Walscheid: I rode the Tour three times in a row before - from 2020 to 2022. When I wasn't at the start in 2023, I didn't find it particularly difficult to watch - because I also know how hard the race is, how much you have to suffer. Especially as the type of driver I am. But after two years away, I'm definitely up for it again.

TOUR: For a racer of your calibre, the time limit on the mountain stages is always a tough opponent. How much anxiety do you feel about the slog - on days when you probably wouldn't be in the mood for a wheelie challenge?

Maximilian Walscheid: Basically, at the beginning of my career I was quite nervous before mountain stages, especially when there were uphill starts, because I simply lacked the experience to judge what I would have to bring in terms of performance. Now I know that if my form is at least average and I don't have any health or similar problems and don't crash, then nothing will usually happen to me. On the other hand, it often happens that the other Gruppetto riders don't optimise their strength and ride along with the peloton until they completely explode at some point. I try to avoid this, let myself be left behind and then ride more rhythmically to the summit. I often pick up a lot of riders in the last third or last fifth of the climb.

TOUR: That sounds more like a lone fighter than a community of suffering in a group?

Maximilian Walscheid: Unfortunately, it has to be said that the romantic idea of the gruppetto is pretty much a thing of the past. It's definitely the case that the gruppetto is becoming increasingly rare. In the early years of my career, there were still riders like Bernhard Eisel who took a bit of control. The gruppetto is still a community of suffering. But everyone is now trying to stay with the peloton as long as possible. And even the sprinters are no longer sticking together too well. The top sprinters don't allow each other the black under their fingernails. If one is in serious trouble, the others try to ride a little faster so that their rival is no longer there the next day.

TOUR: The Gruppetto in the long stage races was a traditional community of fate. A lot is currently changing in professional cycling. To what extent do you like the sometimes highly praised modern cycling that the young super talents celebrate with their aggressive riding style?

Maximilian Walscheid: Difficult! First and foremost, it's more attractive for the spectators - and for me that's basically what the bottom line is. Take the Tour of Flanders, for example: There it used to be the case that you arrived at the Oude Kwaremont in a relatively large group at least the second time round, sometimes even the third. Now it's basically open fire as soon as you ride up there for the first time, during the three spectator-friendly laps. This shows various aspects of modern cycling: on the one hand, people ride very hard early on, which favours riders like Pogačar. There is much more control via watts per kilogramme because there is so much tension on the chain so early and for so long. A heavy rider who might have a big punch two, three, four or five times is much less able to cope with the current style of riding, where you start 15 or 20 times in a race. It's getting harder and harder to compensate for that as a heavy rider. The Tour of Flanders is a good example of this: the wall at Geraardsbergen is no longer a decisive key section - the parcours are becoming more and more compact to make the races more spectator-friendly. All in all, this is a good development for the sport. But of course it's very hard for the riders, because there are only very few races left where you can halfway roll along in any form.

TOUR: You mentioned the dominance of watts per kilogramme. What strategy do you use to approach the sport and the races because of this development?

Maximilian Walscheid: My only strategy is to stop complaining about it. It starts in training: In the training camp, the pace gets faster and faster, there's no waiting at any mountain. You work on yourself so that you can keep up, so that you can establish yourself in this circus. I will never be able to change my physiological conditions. It's completely fine for me - I just have to make the best of the talent and body I've been given.

TOUR: You decided early on that you wanted to study medicine. Did this decision also mean that you had doubts about being able to make it as a professional cyclist due to your stature?

Maximilian Walscheid: When I left school, I never thought about becoming a professional. I grew up in the Koblenz region, did my A-levels there and then moved to Heidelberg in 2012 to study. At the time, I firmly assumed that I would pursue cycling very intensively because I simply enjoyed it a lot and I'm an ambitious guy. However, I didn't really excel in my first two U23 years.

TOUR: How did your path lead to professional cycling after all?

Maximilian Walscheid: When I became German champion in my third U23 year (2014; editor's note), Marc Bator from the Team Vision agency in Berlin approached me about a professional contract. That was the initial spark. In my fourth year, I wanted to give it a go after all and reduced my studies in order to recommend myself for a professional contract. Fortunately, it worked out with my favourite team, Giant-Alpecin. It was a dream, Marcel Kittel was a huge role model of mine on the team. But it was also all a bit surreal.

TOUR: Before you became a professional cyclist in 2016, you had already passed your first state examination in medicine. Are you still planning to complete your medical studies and become a doctor?

Maximilian Walscheid: I would like to finish my degree quite soon. I still have one year to go, i.e. two semesters, before I can register for the second state examination. But it's definitely difficult to combine this with professional cycling. Fortunately, I have a team that gives me the freedom to pursue my studies at the same time, as long as it doesn't restrict my sporting performance. Even if it has been exhausting over the past two years - it is rather enriching alongside cycling.

TOUR: Are you ever asked for help in the team if, for example, no team doctor is available?

Maximilian Walscheid: Yes, there are already questions about what can be done for any minor medical problems. That's very positive. You could also accuse me of being a bit of a smart arse. Fortunately, that's not the case. Other riders are also interested in what you can do alongside cycling.

TOUR: Your current contract with Team Jayco AlUla expires at the end of the season. You can now briefly formulate a letter of application for your next contract ...

Maximilian Walscheid: I know that with the skills I have, combined with a good training ethic, I can be a really good World Tour rider. I will never be one of the best on a significant climb. But that's not my goal at all. With my very specific basic requirements, I've actually managed to make myself very, very useful over the last few years. On the one hand, I can achieve results and victories myself. And on the other hand, I can provide very broad support in the team - from sprinter to classics rider to GC leader. This is extremely practical for teams: they can take me to the Tour de France as a lead-out rider for a flat sprint or to accompany Ben O'Connor (the man for the general classification; editor's note) through windy flat stages or up to the first mountain. And I can be the last helper for Michael Matthews in the Tour of Flanders. I also have a good eye for race situations and can help the team within the team to improve in terms of race analyses and race overview.

TOUR: A good application speech. Nevertheless, you will be 32 years old this summer. To what extent are you worried about your professional future in professional cycling?

Maximilian Walscheid: I have to be honest and say that I'm not worried at all. I'm now entering my tenth professional season. Many World Tour teams know what I can and can't do as a rider. I know pretty much what my value is as a rider. I don't think it would do much harm if the current season didn't go super well in sporting terms. I don't put myself under much pressure. I'm really happy with my successful career so far and remain ambitious. But it's not as if I'm still chasing after something that I really want to achieve. If I couldn't sign a follow-up contract now, I would still live my life as a happy person.