Cycling: This year's Tour of California (for preview). Also at the start is John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin), who wants to slowly get back into shape in the sunny west of the USA after an injury break of several months. The goal remains the Tour de France.
The bad training accident in January robbed John Degenkolb of the classic season and threw the Giant-Alpecin pro's season planning upside down. After lengthy rehab and building up his form, the 27-year-old celebrated his comeback to the competition on May 1 at his home race, Rund um den Finanzplatz, even though he had to give up after a few hours and didn't reach the finish line. The mental component was particularly important for Degenkolb when he returned to racing: "[...] it was good for my head to finally wear a race number again." A completely different challenge awaits on Sunday with the Tour of California: Eight stages, some of which are difficult, and a well-filled field of riders will be the first touchstone on the way back to competition level.
However, Dege is confident that he will be in form in time for the start of the Tour de France in just under two months. "I'm right on schedule," assures last year's Roubaix winner, who had already started in California in 2014. At that time it was enough for two podium places and a third place in the points classification. However, Degenkolb has not set any concrete goals for this year: "Now it's about getting a lot of racing kilometers in your legs and building up racing endurance again [...] That can't be done in training, but only at the high level of a bike race."
His primary role will be to support teammates and captain Laurens Ten Dam in the GC battle. However, Degenkolb is a bit wistful that he probably won't be able to compete with his big competitors Sagan, Kristoff and Cavendish, even if he doesn't want to completely rule out such a scenario: "If my legs are right on one or the other stage, I will of course try it."