Following Politt's Tour stage victory, the German racing team toasted the unexpected triumph in Nimes with champagne, as video footage from the team showed. Politt had prevailed on Thursday with a spirited solo attack from a breakaway group and brought the Upper Bavarian team its first stage win in this year's Tour of France.
"Now Zabel has to step up his game"
"Now Zabel has to step up his game. Now Zabel has to step it up," joked Politt about his training partner and mate Rick Zabel, who is in France for the Israel Start-Up Nation team. Together with Zabel's team-mate André Greipel and Movistar pro Juri Hollmann, who is not riding in the Tour, Zabel and Politt have founded a training group in Cologne, which is very popular on Instagram under the name "Trainingstiere".
Greipel, also a training partner and part of the escape group, gave Politt a big hug immediately after the finish and emphasised the special relationship between the two. "It's very emotional when your training colleague wins a stage. I told him that I wouldn't chase him down." No other rival managed to do the same over the 159.4 kilometres on Thursday.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:210709-99-317937/2
