John Degenkolb from Oberursel has been a professional cyclist since 2011. His greatest successes were the victories at the cycling monuments Paris-Roubaix and Milan-Sanremo in 2015 and winning a stage of the tour in 2018. The 34-year-old family man is contesting his ninth Tour of France this summer.
Tag 7:
How were the two Pyrenees stages? real hard What the guys from Jumbo-Visma pulled off with their blatant team strength is enormous. When they get a command and drive off, it’s almost the end of the day for almost half of the field. On Thursday they dismantled everything that needed to be dismantled on the climb to the Tourmalet.
The pace that Bora-hansgrohe set to get the yellow jersey for Jai Hindley was pretty decent. But when Jumbo-Visma took over and blasted off, I couldn’t go with it anymore either. Strong, as Tadej Pogacar held up as a lone fighter and showed how Jumbo-Visma can be cracked. At the top there could be a real battle between him and Jonas Vingegaard for another two weeks. That’s good for the race.
As a team, we can be satisfied with the two mountain stages, even if the time gaps are considerable. Our captain Romain Bardet is back in the top 10. When the time comes for the lightweight climbers, for me and many others the only thing that matters at some point is to reach the finish line safe and sound.
Infographic The 21 stages of the 110th Tour de France
On both difficult days, I went with a group of about 50 like-minded people. When you arrive at the top of the mountain after a steep ascent, we lose about one minute per kilometer to the winner in the so-called “Gruppetto”. It is important to keep an eye on the time limit for the stage so as not to run the risk of being dropped from the race. The team members who pass us water bottles from the side of the road start the stopwatch when the leaders pass. Then they can call out our backlog.
When we crossed the finish line 32 minutes after Pogacar on Thursday, I couldn’t believe my eyes for a moment. French President Macron stood there and literally patted me on the shoulder and said: “Good job, well done.” That too is the Tour de France.
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That was a different start to a Tour de France than usual! There was a lot more altitude on the first two stages that had to be overcome. The atmosphere and mood in the Basque Country was absolutely unique, that’s what they always say at the Grand Depart, but the Basque fans were just incredibly euphoric. It was a lot of fun to see people’s enthusiasm.
The two stages were really mega-challenging, and the third had a few meters of altitude difference, but there was a sprint at the end. There were already a few riders who felt their legs, so only two left and everyone was happy in the end that there was a sprint. In a Grand Tour, it has actually never been the case that you have entered the race with such demanding profiles.
John Degenkolb (right) at the Tour de France: Image: picture alliance / Roth
Do I like that or not? Such a start definitely makes the races safer. There are fewer falls because nervousness and hectic pace are definitely not that great on such difficult stages. You notice your legs a bit more afterwards than if there had been two flat stages or if there had been a prologue at the beginning. This first week of the tour will take a long time. Basically, I think a prologue would have been good for the Tour, followed by two tough stages, but the Basques don’t like things that short that much. But even as it was, it wasn’t bad.
As I said, the race was less hectic and so far only two riders had to leave injured after falls. There were years on the tour when we lost ten men after three days. Overall, I see this as a successful attempt to make cycling a little safer.
