Georg Steinhauser
How Lyme disease slowed down a German professional cyclist
For months, Georg Steinhauser puzzled over the cause of his drop in performance and listlessness – until a tick bite was revealed to be the trigger. The illness turns his life upside down.
In the darkest hours, professional cyclist Georg Steinhauser isolated himself completely. The 2024 Giro stage winner wondered why he felt so grumpy and suddenly could only pedal with reduced power. “I was at home in my apartment for three days and didn’t speak to anyone. I didn’t feel like I had opened a window. That’s when I realized that things couldn’t go on like this,” the 24-year-old told the German Press Agency.
Bacteria had spread in his body that didn’t belong there. But at that time, Steinhauser hardly knew the disease that was caused by the pathogens. “I had mental problems and was really down. Actually towards depression. That was my conclusion,” he said to himself. But the symptoms, which worsened in the summer, had another cause – although it was difficult to recognize at first: Lyme borreliosis, which is caused by ticks. Before realizing this, the ambitious young professional went through several months of suffering.
Lyme disease is often overlooked
Many stories about top athletes with the disease are not known. The long-time professional soccer player Alexander Meier from Eintracht Frankfurt suffered from Lyme disease. Ex-professional Zoltan Sebescen is also among those affected. At the age of 29 he ended his career. It is said to be due to knee problems, caused by Lyme disease.
Lyme disease usually doesn’t appear as a cause in sports teams’ press releases when they draw attention to their athletes’ absences. In general, only a small proportion of people with clearly noticeable symptoms get it. According to the Robert Koch Institute, 0.3 to 1.4 percent of people with tick bites can be expected to have a “clinically manifest disease”.
Those affected have depressive moods
The infectious disease, which cannot be transmitted from person to person, is often overlooked. “The problem is that it is not diagnosed,” said Herbert Rixecker when asked by dpa. The doctor is the first chairman of the German Lyme Disease Society. “With chronic Lyme disease, it’s very common for people to have depressive moods. Then they can also have intellectual loss, difficulty finding words or anxiety disorders,” he explained. It is not unusual that a large number of mental illnesses can also have an infectious background.
Steinhauser experiences this on his own body. “I didn’t feel like cycling anymore, I didn’t enjoy it because there were so many setbacks,” said the Allgäu native about the situation when he didn’t know what was happening in his body. “For example, I would never have expected the low mood thing.”
A little more than a year earlier, Jan Ullrich’s former nephew – the cycling idol was married to Steinhauser’s aunt Sara – had celebrated his greatest career victory when he won a stage in the Giro d’Italia at the mountain finish on the Passo Brocon.
Steinhauser: “Two hours of training felt like four”
But now the illness stopped him. It is often only a brief moment when the tick strikes. Some people recognize the infection by the frequent migrating redness. This is a red ring that forms around the tick bite.
Steinhauser didn’t notice anything like that. This summer he realized something was wrong. “Two hours of training felt like four,” he said. “When I was training, I just lacked the power, I had no energy. Once I stopped a training session and took the train home. The whole situation was very hard on my head,” he said. His weight changed. Normally, the rider tested in the mountains weighs between 70 and 71 kilograms. “When it was at its worst, I was 67 kilos. It felt like I couldn’t do anything about it.”
Steinhauser lives near Lake Constance, on the Austrian side. Ticks have different regional distributions, but Lyme disease can be transmitted throughout Germany.
Rixecker: Tests from your family doctor are sometimes not informative enough
The doctors on his American team and his family doctor examined the professional thoroughly. But they didn’t really understand his drop in performance. “Nobody really knew what was wrong. I had everything checked: blood sample, stool sample. But they just didn’t see anything,” he said. However, there was no specific testing for Lyme disease pathogens.
Doctor Rixecker knows these hurdles. “The problem is that normal laboratory tests that you do at your family doctor are sometimes not informative enough,” he explains. In the early stages of illness, tests for antibodies against Borrelia can be negative. And in chronic cases, laboratory tests may not work. Sometimes the non-specific symptoms and the lack of erythema mean that the doctor does not consider Lyme disease in the laboratory analysis.
Lyme disease does not have a typical course
Lyme disease, for which there is no vaccination, does not have a typical course. Fatigue, loss of performance, difficulty concentrating, muscle and joint pain and fever can occur. Due to the lack of symptoms in some cases, numbers on cases in Germany are difficult. The Robert Koch Institute writes that the vast majority of illnesses are comparatively mild and can be easily treated with antibiotics and must be treated to prevent complications from occurring.
After some time, Steinhauser’s family doctor tested again specifically for Lyme disease – with success. “That’s how we found out. That was obviously helpful for me, that we at least had a reason,” said the 24-year-old.
Steinhauser is now feeling better again. In November he took part in a training camp in Spain. “At the moment I feel good, also mentally,” he said. If it stays that way, the German professional cyclist has a chance of taking part in the Tour de France for the first time next summer.
dpa
