Cycling: When the Tour de France gets rolling in Le Mont-Saint-Michel on Saturday, twelve German riders will be at the start. Four of them are real candidates for victory, while the other eight will probably have to do mostly volunteer work.
How many German victories will we celebrate?
After a cycling boom in Germany caused by Jan Ullrich and Erik Zabel in the mid-90s, things went downhill afterwards. We have long been out of this, because the successes of the past few years are in no way inferior to those of the past. Marcel Kittel from the Etixx-Quick Step team and André Greipel from the Lotto Soudal team are German drivers and are currently probably the two best sprinters in the world. Stage wins are almost guaranteed because their teams concentrate fully on the mass sprints and will hardly give the breakaways a chance. André Greipel can rely on the help of Marcel Sieberg, who is one of his most important helpers and also brought him the German championship title at the weekend. Marcel Kittel, on the other hand, has “The German Panzerwagen” as a teammate. This will help him prepare for the sprint and mercilessly chase the breakaways. In addition, the German driver is also the top favorite in the fight against the clock. The only flat time trial will be stage 15 from Bourg-Saint-Andéol to Vallon-Pont-d'Arc on July 13. The Germans have another trump card when the profile gets a little wavy. Team Giant-Alpecin's John Degenkolb will also compete in mass sprints, but on flat terrain he should be inferior to the fastest men in the world. However, if things get a little hillier, the 2015 Paris-Roubaix winner is the hottest contender alongside Peter Sagan, Greg Van Avermaet, Michael Matthews and Boasson Hagen. Simon Geschke will be faithfully at his side, who will also be found in breakaway groups on a mountain stage that is not too difficult. So there are many stages where you can hope for a German winner. Only in the high mountains and thus in the overall classification do German drivers have no ambitions.
Pure helpers or drivers with freedom?
As already described in our big Velomotion team check, the German team Bora-Argon 18 will mainly concentrate on escape groups. Since neither a good sprinter nor a really strong climber can be identified in the team, you won't wait until the finish line. Three German riders are in the nine-man squad, with Emanuel Buchmann certainly the one with the best chance of a stage win. Last year's German champion has his qualities on the mountain and one could set the clock by when he will be placed in a top group there. Andreas Schillinger and Paul Voss could find themselves in a breakaway on flat stages or in slightly hilly terrain. Marcus Burghardt wears the BMC jersey and will hardly be given any freedom there. His job is to protect captains Richie Porte and Tejay Van Garderen and provide the necessary speed on flat terrain. Two German drivers also do their laps in the Dutch team LottoNL-Jumbo. Paul Martens could be up front in short hill sprints, while Robert Wagner will probably have to start the sprints for his teammate Dylan Groenewegen.
German drivers and their teams
Marcus Burghardt (BMC)
Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Argon 18)
Andreas Schillinger (Bora-Argon 18)
Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18)
Marcel Kittel (Etixx Quick Step)
Tony Martin (Etixx Quick Step)
André Greipel (Lotto Soudal)
Marcel Sieberg (Lotto Soudal)
John Degenkolb (Giant Alpecin)
Simon Geschke (Giant Alpecin)
Paul Martens (LottoNL-Jumbo)
Robert Wagner (LottoNL-Jumbo)
Tour de France Teams – The big preview of Velomotion
Tour de France teams #1: The stage chasers
Tour de France Teams #2: The sprinter teams
Tour de France teams #3: Focus on the general classification