It could be a wonderful adventure holiday. The oasis of Al Ula promotes Saudi Arabia as one of the top travel destinations in the desert state. But for Maximilian Walscheid, the flight to the Middle East means travelling for work. The 31-year-old professional cyclist from Heidelberg has his first race there in the 2025 season: the AlUla Tour, a UCI category 2.1 stage race, will take place from 28 January to 1 February 2025. The race and Walscheid's employer, the Australian racing team Jayco AlUla, have the same sponsor. It will be a warm-up round on the way to the big season goals in 2025 - on cobblestones and at the Tour de France.
Max Walscheid: Season opener in Saudi Arabia
The largely flat route should suit the second tallest and unconfirmed heaviest professional cyclist in the World Tour (1.99 metres tall and 90 kilograms in top form). He will probably prove his two top qualities there - as a helper: he is a strong sprinter and a tireless pacer. His captain Dylan Groenewegen can use both of these qualities. The 31-year-old Dutchman, six-time stage winner at the Tour de France, is also making his season debut on the Arabian Peninsula and needs fast and speedy team-mates to prepare for the final sprint. Together with the Slovenian Luka Mezgec and the newly signed Austrian Patrick Gamper, Walscheid is expected to complete the first test ride for a newly formed sprint train.
Caleb Ewan makes way
Shortly before the first race, Groenewegen is rid of a team-mate and internal rival - and perhaps Walscheid too: the Australian top sprinter Caleb Ewan moved to the INEOS Grenadiers in January. This change should also mean changes for Walscheid: his chances of being allowed to ride for his own success in flatter races should increase. His goal: "I want to win a race every year." Since the start of his professional career in the 2016 season, back then with Giant-Alpecin, he has consistently achieved this - almost always as an individual winner, but sometimes also as part of a team. In 2021, he won the world championship title in the mixed team time trial with the German national team on Tony Martin's farewell lap. "It's important for me to keep a nose for victory," emphasises the sprinting all-rounder.
Love for the pavement
Walscheid has two areas of work: as a helper and (more rarely) as a winner. The medical student sees his first highlight of the season on 13 April 2025. "As far as my own good results are concerned, Paris-Roubaix is definitely my focus," he emphasises ahead of the 2025 season opener. It's a kind of late love affair with the cobblestone brawl. Big, strong, fast - no other race is so customised to the giant. Eighth place was his best result to date in the Roubaix velodrome in 2023 - back then still in the jersey of the French team Cofidis. It could be even better. Too often, something has come up against him along the way - only late in his now ten-year career has he been able to prove that he is a top rider for rough terrain. He takes a relaxed approach to setbacks. Last year, as overall leader of the Tour of Austria, he crashed on the second stage - in the middle of the season at the beginning of July. "When I thought about my own season record, I had almost forgotten that I had broken my wrist there," he says.
Individual and team victories
Nevertheless, last season went quite well - he achieved the victory he was aiming for at Omloop van het Houtland in September - he had already celebrated first place at the race in Belgium in 2019. "That was nice and important in many ways. I was also able to win the opening time trial of the Tour of Slovakia with the team. And that was also a bit symbolic for the whole year," summarises Walscheid. In short: win, fall down and get up, win again. Personal victories and victories thanks to teamwork. That's the mix that makes it interesting for Walscheid and makes Walscheid interesting for his employer. "You can take me along for a flat sprint at the Tour de France or as the last helper for Michael Matthews at the Tour of Flanders. And I can ride Ben O'Connor through windy flat stages or up to the first climb in tough, difficult stages" - this is how Walscheid himself explains his job. The newly signed Australian O'Connor is opening up new areas of work: He has already finished fourth once in the Tour of France and was second in the Vuelta a Espana last year. The narrow climber can hide behind Walscheid's broad cross in the airstream.
Tour de France: The pain is forgotten
Because Walscheid is once again keen to take part in the biggest event of the cycling year. "I have justified hopes of being back at the Tour de France," he says during the team training camp in January. After a two-year break. The first time in 2023, it didn't hurt to watch - the memory of how tough crossing the high mountains in France is for a man of his stature was too vivid. But nowhere else are the professional cyclists so much in the spotlight. And there is plenty of work to be done in the three weeks: speed bolts on the flat for the newly signed Australian tour captain Ben O'Connor or as an important part of the sprint train for Dylan Groenewegen. At Team Jayco-Alula, they know what they have in the Neuwied native.
Max Walscheid: First a professional cyclist, then a doctor?
Walscheid's contract with the Australians expires at the end of the season. Walscheid says he is not worried. He has prospects. When cycling is over, he wants to finally finish his medical studies. He still has two semesters to go. Doctor instead of professional cyclist - when Walscheid gets off his bike, it doesn't have to be a relegation.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
