Son of a cycling idol
"I wouldn't say that my father brought me up to be a cyclist. But he was instrumental in me taking up the sport. There was hardly any other way. His active career was long over by the time I was on the bike. But he had been such a celebrated track cyclist, world champion, Olympian and this sport was so big in the former GDR that it was still in our family. And I realised that all the time as a small child. I gained my first cycling experience with my father, we rode around on mountain bikes in Brandenburg. But something else really got me interested: the boom surrounding Team Telekom, the new heroes Jan Ullrich and Erik Zabel, who also came from the former GDR like us. Yes, I wanted to be as famous as them. And I had the self-confidence to believe in it. I was ten or eleven years old when I took up the sport and rode my first races. My father saw that I had talent, he could judge that. Of course, he was a different type of rider than I wanted to be. I only ever found road cycling fascinating, he had captivated people with track sprints. But he knew a lot about the sport. He introduced me to it in a playful way. And then he sent me to his old club in Berlin, where he was an honorary member and I was able to develop really well. At the same time, he advised me over the following years, even when I already had my own coach. My father always had the right expertise and that helped me a lot on my way to the end of the U23s. Incidentally, this interest is a male thing in our family. My mum and sister didn't follow the sport and certainly didn't follow every one of my races with passion. But they did watch the Tour. I know that my father, a huge road cycling fan himself, is very proud of me today."
Start your career at Skil-Shimano
"Up until the end of the U23s, I had a classic career structure and always pursued the goal of becoming a professional athlete, even if it was sometimes very hard. At school, for example, alongside grammar school, it's extremely energy-sapping. I did my A-levels, not well, but to be on the safe side. It was a rocky road. After that, things got better and better, I did my community service at the Charité hospital in Berlin and got more time for training, then I was even in a sports promotion company of the Bundeswehr in the U23. I had time to develop. It's amazing how things have changed over the past 15 years. Today, many juniors are physically at a level that I hardly had back then, even at the end of the U23s. They work much more scientifically, but the pressure is also greater, you hardly have the time for patient training. I was a good U23 rider, but not the best. I was also an all-rounder. And that was also a problem. Because things got really tight for German all-rounders in 2008, when I was in my final year of training. The doping scandals - Fuentes and all those that followed - had destroyed the structures in Germany in particular. The old Telekom project was history, Gerolsteiner closed down and the market was full of established competitors. A similar type of rider to me, Paul Voß, went to Milram at the time - but even there it was soon over. I was turned down there, but I was lucky enough to know Robert Wagner, who was riding for Skil-Shimano at the time, through my friend Henning Bommel. He in turn wrote to me a few weeks later: "Have you got anything yet?" He put me in touch with Iwan Sprekenbrink, the team manager of the Dutch team, we met at the World Championships in Varese and he gave me a contract. I didn't negotiate much, there was no basis for that, but I'm very happy that I signed this contract. The team was my home for almost ten years. I jumped from amateur level to the Tour de France in the space of a year and, just like the whole team, I was overwhelmed at first, but quickly learnt a lot. That has a lot to do with Merijn Zeeman, who did an enormous amount of development work as a coach. I am very grateful for this time."
Career as a noble helper
"It made my career great that I never hesitated when it came to helping. I stood up for others. The teams noticed that. I suppose that also brought me straight to the Tour as a neo-pro. I was able to achieve my own results, but what people appreciated about me was that I could completely empty myself day after day for someone else's success. There are differences: When riders act as helpers and end up finishing 15th on a stage themselves, they must have held something back. It was different for me: I was happy if I made it to the finish at all. That was the case with Tom Dumoulin, for example, for whom I was an important helper on several tours. In 2017, when Tom won the Giro, I wasn't actually supposed to be there, I had overdone it with training in the spring. Nevertheless, I joined because Tom appreciated me as a helper. Many helpers do stupid things because they want to fulfil their role: they push the pace too hard and harm their leader, or they don't see the race situation. I was relatively clever, for example, I brought us to the front on crests before the descent. If the leader had a difficult day, I took that into account. Back then, at the Giro, I was doing surprisingly well, on one stage I had to wait for Tom several times. It was important that I was able to put myself in his shoes and stay within reach. I excelled at helping, I also did that for John Degenkolb and Marcel Kittel, even in races that weren't really my cup of tea. The nice thing about it: I always had a really attractive racing programme, I was at the Tour twelve times. I can be proud of that, I can look back on a fulfilling career."
Solo to success
"When I see the pictures of my only stage win at the Tour de France, it still releases endorphins. If I could have written a film script as a twelve-year-old, I would have done exactly the same. Okay, maybe I would have fantasised about winning the Tour. But joking aside: in 2015, on the way through the Alps, I found myself in an outstanding constellation. I've often come close to such successes in my career, but on the way to Pra-Loup I realised that I had to look for my chance in the attack. I knew that other riders in the leading group were also strong, even much better than me on the climbs. That's why I attacked. And I saved my lead to the finish. That was clearly the greatest triumph of my career, there's nothing better. You have to categorise it: For a rider like me, there aren't many opportunities in a career to win Tour stages like this, many never even come close - despite strong careers. Two years earlier I was in a leading group and had a chance of winning, but then I had no chance in the sprint. Two days before my stage win in Pra-Loup, I had also tried it and ended up fourth. I knew: now or never, I'm strong, I have to give it a go! There were climbers like Richie Porte and Adam Yates in the leading group. So, I pulled away 50 kilometres before the finish. Objectively, I would have estimated my chances that day at ten per cent. But it worked out. That was unique, and after that it also became more difficult for me. Because everyone now knew that I had what it took to win a stage in the Alps."
The lasting disappointment
"This moment will annoy me for the rest of my life. I'm beaten, I'm crying, it's the 18th stage of the 2022 Tour, the last relevant mountain points have been awarded. The fact that I lost the Tour's mountains jersey so close to the end was a huge defeat from a sporting point of view. You could say: I'm just happy to have worn the jersey once, no other German had it as long as I did. But back then I had an incredibly great opportunity to write sporting history - and I should actually have managed it. I had already shown my form at the Tour de Romandie, I had the legs and the right points lead before the final mountain stage. But I failed because of little things. For example, I shouldn't have stayed in the breakaway group on the way to Mende a few days earlier, that was a tough battle in the heat that only brought me three points. You can't afford to have days like that in the Tour if you still need the strength at the end. And on the day when I lost the mountain jersey to Jonas Vingegaard, my team didn't behave very cleverly either. The sports directors seemed nervous, my team-mates too, and as a result everyone did too much. On the climb, I had the feeling that I was going backwards. I'd like to have a time machine and ride this Tour again with the knowledge I have today."
Once again in the spotlight
"In my last season, I wanted to give it another go, and the Giro d'Italia in particular was always something very special for me - I wanted to be in top form. I prepared more meticulously than I had for a long time, did several altitude training camps, stepped up my strength training and also took recovery very seriously. I was quite unexpectedly given the role of captain for this tour in my team, as we hadn't previously decided on a clear leader at Cofidis. It was the first time that I had targeted the overall classification myself in a Grand Tour, and it worked brilliantly. My form was just as good as it was before 2022, and at 38 years old I was able to keep up with the world's best. In the end, 14th place at the Giro was a great result, and the memories of riding in the blue jersey of the best climber are just as fond. However, I only wore it as a deputy for Tadej Pogacar, who had already claimed the mountain classification for himself right at the start of the tour. I never had the illusion of taking the jersey from him. It was nice to be able to keep up with people from a different generation of cyclists. It felt like my first Grand Tour and my last Giro took place in two completely different cycling worlds, the young riders are ready-made athletes in their early 20s, scientifically highly trained, scouted for talent from all over the world. But somehow I still managed to keep going. I had proved that to myself, and that was a nice success at the end."
Time for the family and more freedom
"Fortunately, I found the perfect setting to retire from the sport at a high level. It was a good exit. Now I'm happy that I can start something new. It was more of a coincidence that everything fell into place. Sophie and I got married last summer and now we've also had a baby - it couldn't be better, because I'm going straight from full-time professional sport to being a father, so to speak. I want to take my time for this, I want to be there for them first and settle down in peace. There is no plan for the coming months beyond that, no pressure to start anything professional. But one thing is also clear: I want to stay connected to cycling and won't disappear from the scene for several years. In six months, maybe a year, I will be looking for new roles in the sport. It is important to me and I believe that I can pass on a lot here. Parallel to my career ending, I've already moved on to something new. In Freiburg, I've teamed up with hoteliers to make altitude training camps possible without travelling too far. We have equipped two flats in the bike hotel in Freiburg with a high-tech system and enable visitors to simulate the effects of a stay on the Teide or in the Sierra Nevada in the Black Forest. That was a personal investment that I am convinced of - because I used it myself in preparation for my last Giro. My career has fulfilled me. I'm looking forward to the time ahead of me."
Simon Geschke - about the person
Simon Geschke (13 March 1986, East Berlin) started out as a junior at the Berlin TSC, where his father had also been active. In 2008 he was a stagiaire with the German team Milram, in 2009 he turned professional with Skil-Shimano (later other sponsors) and stayed there for a decade. After two years with CCC, he ended his career with Cofidis (2021-24). Geschke's first professional victory came at the Criterium International in 2011. His greatest success was a Tour stage win in 2015. Geschke contested the Tour twelve times, the Giro four times and the Vuelta five times.
