World Cycling Championships: German men's team in the underdog role
DPA
· 22.09.2022
"If you look at it soberly, other nations might not necessarily have us on their radar," said national coach Jens Zemke. But with a good unit and a good attitude, they could achieve something on Sunday. "And the nice thing is that these six guys are happy that they can race and everyone is happy to be racing a World Cup in Australia," emphasised Zemke.
Many top German riders missing
Top riders such as Max Schachmann, Nils Politt and Lennard Kämna were not available. "They would all have been racers that we would have liked to take with us," said Zemke. However, Schachmann had recently ended the season due to exhaustion syndrome.
"Lennard Kämna always had the green light. But after the Tour de France the performance curve went extremely downwards. He is only now racing again to build up. We hope that he will do quite well again in October. But he couldn't be arsed for a world championship now. If he had, he would certainly have ridden here as captain," explained the national coach.
Georg Zimmermann could play a good role in the German team. Germany Tour had finished fourth overall.
What can Zimmermann achieve?
"That gave me extra motivation and self-confidence. It was the first time that I've ridden at the front in a professional mountain finish," said Zimmermann, who has respect for the very long 266.9 kilometre route: "In terms of altitude, the route isn't extremely difficult, but the race distance is very long. That's why I think you need a good foundation."
Click through: The previous world champions at the 2022 World Cycling Championships
The favourites on Sunday include the Slovenian former Tour champion Tadej Pogacar, Vuelta winner Remco Evenepoel and his Belgian compatriot Wout van Aert, the Australian all-rounder Michael Matthews and the French defending champion Julian Alaphilippe. The last German World Championship title was won by Rudi Altig in 1966.
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