Road World Cup 2019: John Degenkolb & Tony Martin should fix it

Cycling: Today, Monday, the BDR announced the elite men's line-up for the 2019 Road World Championships in Yorkshire. As expected, Tony Martin and Nils Politt will start in the time trial. In the road race, Germany relies primarily on John Degenkolb.

Germany is not a co-favourite

A few days ago, the BDR Nominations for the World Road Championships in Yorkshire made public September 22-29. A little more time was needed for the Elite Men's line-up. Certainly also because the cancellation of Maximilian Schachmann, who was not completely fit, thwarted the original plans. Now the Germans are building up John Degenkolb. That decision is likely to raise some question marks, as the 30-year-old has only won one stage of the Tour La Provence this year and has also underperformed at the Vuelta a Espana over the past three weeks. At the same time, however, the question arises: What alternatives does the BDR have? With the loss of Maximilian Schachmann, the variants are severely limited.

Catch the right escape group

Since the course in Yokshire is a bit too difficult for classic sprinters and far too easy for climbers, the typical classic hunters will probably fight for the world title among themselves. At the same time, however, it should be noted that different laws apply at a World Cup due to the national teams. So it can definitely come to constellations in which a breakaway has realistic chances of medals. The BDR is also hoping for exactly such a possibility. Instead of doing the tracking work in the peloton, the race should be designed offensively. With Nils Politt, Jasha Sütterlin, and Simon Geschke and the very strong one at the Vuelta Nickias Arndt you have exactly the right drivers in the squad for this. For Jonas Koch, Marcus Burghardt and Pascal Ackermann the profile will probably be too heavy. It is therefore somewhat incomprehensible that Nico Denz was not nominated, as the course suits him much better.