Cycling: How satisfied can we be with the Tour de France 2018 from a German-speaking point of view? Again, no driver made it into the top 10. This time, Germany, Switzerland and Austria together only managed to win one stage. Any reason we need to worry?
Victory driver: Significantly worse record than in previous years
Even before the start of the Tour de France, it was to be expected that the German riders would not achieve the positive results of the past few years. In the previous five years, 26 victories were achieved, which corresponds to an average of 5,2 stage wins per Tour de France. The decisive factors were the victories in the mass sprints and in the time trial. That didn't happen this season because the competition has become much stronger. Unfortunately, Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) and André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) were not able to win a single game. The omens were also bad for Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin), as there was only one time trial, which also showed a wavy profile. The fact that he – like Kittel and Greipel – had to leave the Tour de France early made things even more difficult. The only bright spot was John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo), his long-awaited Stage win in a Tour de France was allowed to celebrate – in Roubaix of all places.
#TDF2018@johndegenkolb.
Pure joy. pic.twitter.com/9R4CkU6UgL- Trek-Segafredo (@TrekSegafredo) July 15, 2018
Helpers: German-speaking drivers do a good job everywhere
Cycling is not just about winning riders. Accordingly, we do not only issue the certificates of professionals based on their own statistics. For example, we praise Marcus Burghardt for his help, as do the two Austrians Lukas Pöstlberger and Gregor Mühlberger. They could often be seen in action in the jersey of the Bora-hansgrohe team. Together with their captain Peter Sagan, they conquered the green jersey and enabled the world champion to win three stages. The German Sunweb professionals Nikias Arndt and Simon Geschke were - quite surprisingly - responsible for Tom Dumoulin even in the mountains. Paul Martens (LottoNL-Jumbo) will also be pleased with how his captain Primoz Roglic and sprinter Dylan Groenewegen rocked the Tour de France. The two Swiss Michael Schär and Stefan Küng were able to protect the yellow jersey for several days. However, with BMC captain Richie Porte injured, the pre-Tour de France plan was shattered early on. In the AG2R La Mondiale team, Romain Bardet also did not go according to plan, although Mathias Frank and Silvan Dillier can be attested to have performed well.
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