It won’t be long now: André Greipel from Germany on what will probably be his last Tour de France.
Foto: picture alliance/dpa/BELGA
The 108th Tour de France also became a farewell stage. André Greipel, who was born in Rostock, announced: »My last Tour de France will end on Sunday. I turned 39 on Friday, I’m racing against 20-year-olds. And I noticed during this tour: Now is a good time to stop. “
The Belgian Philippe Gilbert, who was nine days older, was in the same direction. “I don’t think I’ll come back to the tour again. The final on the Champs-Élysées is the last time I’ll see Paris by bike, ”he said. Even more clearly than Greipel, he made it clear that the meager results in recent years are a motive to retreat: »I had to get off the last four tours of France early. So it was my big goal to finish this one. At any age, it means a lot to complete a tour, ”said the Lotto Soudal professional. Driving through instead of fighting for victories – a small goal for a great champion.
Tom Mustroph, cycling author and doping expert, reports for the 20th time for “nd” from the Tour de France.
Photo: na / Jirka Grahl
In contrast to Greipel, who still wants to finally end his career with the Germany Tour and the Hamburg Cyclassics, Gilbert is thinking about driving the next season, at the age of 40, but then without the Tour de France.
This means that the next tour peloton will have a total of 256 professional victories, including 29 stage victories at Grand Tours, ten classic victories and one world title poorer.
Greipel contributed 158 victories in 16 seasons to the balance sheet. He spent his best career years with the Lotto Soudal team. From 2011 to 2016 he won at least one stage in the Tour de France every year, beating the phenomena Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel, among others. In recent years, however, the curve of success has declined. Even if his position was good and his sprint was perfect, he rarely got more than a top 10 placement in the mass sprint. The adrenaline that is poured out in the athletes’ bodies in the scramble of the mass sprint gave way more and more to testosterone at Greipel, which creates anger and anger. Dopamine releases of happiness and joy decreased at least in the races.
Both farewells are proof of the generation change in cycling. Older drivers feel more and more as the young drive away from them. “A generation change is normal. But it usually happens more gradually. The boys today are very popular, ”remarked Thomas De Gendt, Gilbert’s team-mate and already 34 years old. “On this tour I stepped on watts that I used to split the peloton with,” said the Belgian, whose trademark was actually mega-long solo runs. “But here I followed a group of 70 drivers with the same numbers.” How long De Gendt will do this to himself is questionable. He still has a contract for another season.
But he also received the arrival of the new phenomena with humor. He made this forecast for the future: »We are in the year 2032. Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel have each won the Tour de France six times. Mathieu van der Poel competed in 17 disciplines at the Olympic Games and won 17 medals. Wout van Aert brings Paris-Roubaix for the 7th time. And Alejandro Valverde announces that he will be hanging on for another year because he doesn’t feel old yet. “
Valverde, currently 41 years old, actually announced the withdrawal from retreat. “I feel that I can still give a lot,” he said. At the time of going to press, Pogacar was close to his second tour victory. Remco Evenepoel hasn’t even done a single tour. But many Belgian experts consider him to be a great talent for tours. The multi-talented Mathieu van der Poel traveled to Tokyo after his week in yellow on the tour to win Olympic gold in the mountain bike race. That classic talent Wout van Aert would win the stage to the Ventoux and also the last time trial on this tour, even De Gendt seemed risky when speculating about the future. The present is sometimes more flashy than the forecasts. Let’s wait for 2032.
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