It is the final stretch of the 2026 Lidl Germany Tour. After 740 kilometres through Hesse, Bavaria, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg, the finish line in Heilbronn is less than 2,000 metres away. At the front of the pack, one of cycling’s prodigies is battling for his second stage victory: the Mexican Isaac Del Toro of UAE Team Emirates-XRG has already secured the overall classification of the tour. Yet in the final stretch of the last stage, it is, of all people, a fellow Mexican who is trying to deny him another victory.
When Edgar David Cadena Martínez – the melodious name of the young climber – used the final metres of ascent to break away from the large chasing pack, it initially caused some surprise. Hardly anyone knows this man from Mexico City. In the Storck-MRW Bau team car, however, the atmosphere is electric, because Cadena is the captain of the young continental team from Germany.
“I had three million thoughts racing through my head and just pushed Edgar as hard as I could,” recalls Felix Linders, one of the team’s sporting directors, of the moment when he first realised what was happening via Radio Tour and, moments later, via the live stream on the monitor in the car. The fact that his rider was caught again 700 metres from the finish line was ultimately of secondary importance, as Cadena had still achieved something extraordinary.
First top-ten finish
Since the relaunch of the 2018 Deutschland Tour, no rider from a Continental team has managed to break into the top ten of the general classification. The Mexican was the first to do so, finishing tenth. He was just nine seconds short of fourth place; in a few months’ time, that gap will be nothing more than a statistic. What will be remembered is that Cadena carried out his team’s instructions almost to perfection and secured an important presence for his team in the race.
“For us, competing in the Tour of Germany as a German KT team is a bit like riding the Tour de France as a French team,” says Patrick Schubert, team manager at Storck-MRW Bau. “The fact that we were able to perform so well in what is our most important race of the year, and to compete on equal terms with nine World Teams rather than just making up the numbers, is simply incredibly important.” Storck-MRW Bau also made it onto the podium once, when Alvaro Sagrado was named the most combative rider on the second stage. The team had originally aimed for the mountains’ jersey with him too, but that plan didn’t quite work out in the end.
Higher ambitions
No one in the team is content merely with filling the ranks of breakaway groups any longer. Ambitions have risen significantly since two Bundesliga teams merged to form KT-Team Storck-Metropol for the 2023 season, which has now become Team Storck-MRW Bau. The UCI licence remains with Schubert’s operating company, but otherwise a great deal has changed. Alongside bike manufacturer Storck, which has remained on board, the Swabian construction firm MRW has not only joined the team but has also become the main sponsor. Managing Director Julian Rammler once tried his hand at the Continental Tour as a rider himself.
Rammler and Schubert, also a former racing driver, have known each other ever since. “In October 2025, Julian got in touch with me and asked how things were going. We’ve been in contact ever since. The only thing we were short of was time,” recalls Schubert. This is because, by October, the UCI’s licensing process for the following season is already in full swing. By the end of the month, all the necessary documentation – including all financial guarantees – must be submitted, and at least ten riders must be registered.
However, Storck-MRW Bau did not let the time constraints slow them down. Among the last-minute rider signings the team managed to secure is Edgar Cadena. Before Isaac Del Toro became a star virtually overnight, Cadena was regarded as Mexico’s number one cyclist, winning the national championship twice in a row in 2023 and 2024. He also enjoyed back-to-back victories at the Vuelta a Asturias in April. These were the team’s first – and so far only – two victories. His result at the Tour of Germany is further proof of the quality Cadena brings to the team. “I can keep developing within the team; the conditions are brilliant,” says the 26-year-old, though he admits: “It annoys me that I missed the chance to break away with Isaac. That would certainly have been possible on the queen stage, but when he went, I was a bit too far back in the peloton and boxed in.”
A squad of high calibre
Even more significant is the signing of Matthew Walls. The 28-year-old Briton has been under contract with World Tour teams for the past five years; he joined from Groupama-FDJ for the new season and rode for Bora-hansgrohe prior to that. In 2021, he became Olympic champion in the omnium on the track in Tokyo. Following his gold-medal triumph, however, Walls was repeatedly plagued by serious injuries and crashes, which made it almost impossible for him to build up his form consistently. This trend continued whilst riding for his new team. At the Tour de Wallonie, he was caught up in a serious mass crash, resulting in a broken collarbone, six broken ribs and a lung injury. The Tour of Germany was his first race since returning to action. At the highest point of the tour, on the Kalmit, he was forced to abandon the race. “Perhaps the race came a little too soon, but I was determined to give it a go and support the team at their highlight of the season,” said a disappointed Walls shortly after he had to get into the team car.
A strong squad increases the chances of competing in major races. KT teams are excluded from World Tour races under the regulations; Pro Series races are the highest level they can compete in. Alongside the Tour of Germany, the Tour de Wallonie, the Tour of Britain, the Tour de Luxembourg and the Münsterland Giro, Storck-MRW Bau is competing in five such races. No other German KT team has managed to compete in more this season.
Think big – and act accordingly
Another thing that sets the team apart from the rest of the KT competition is the fleet of motorised vehicles the team has been able to boast since the start of this season. A little off the beaten track, but in good company alongside the large team buses from Picnic-PostNL and Visma-Lease a Bike, stands a colossus of a vehicle, predominantly in beige and black. Next to it, the team is celebrating their tenth place and overall success in the Tour of Germany with champagne and pizza in a small tent. Before the Storck-MRW Bau bus set off on tour – at international level, only a handful of KT teams can afford something like this – it was part of the fleet of the World Tour team Intermarché-Wanty, which merged with Lotto before the season began. Before that, it had already been in the service of BMC Racing.
The bus symbolises the fact that Storck-MRW Bau has bigger plans and views KT status primarily as a stepping stone. The main sponsor, Julian Rammler, is primarily responsible for the vehicle – which, including a complete interior refurbishment, cost a mid-six-figure sum – as well as for the more ambitious goals. He states clearly: “We want to compete on the international stage and, at some point, take the next step.” Most recently, the Stuttgart native provided financial support to his local club, but the ambition that drives him requires a bigger platform. “Cycling has always been my passion. And once you’re involved, you can’t let go,” he says, trying to explain his commitment.
Objective: Promotion
Yet Rammler is far more than just a financial backer. He scouts riders, organises the support staff, takes on management tasks, but also gives the cars a final clean on the eve of the race or tidies up the coach when he is on the road with the team, as was the case during the Tour of Germany. “As a team, we can only achieve our goals by working together,” he says succinctly. Another area Rammler focuses on is securing further sponsors. And he sees a key advantage for himself in this. “I’m not in the cycling bubble. I understand the sport, but I’m still far enough removed from it because I mainly look after my business and therefore have a different network to a team manager who has been involved solely in cycling for years.” In other words: Rammler wants to use his business connections to find a strategic partner who will support his project. Business-to-business, B2B.
The 39-year-old, who is fittingly celebrating his birthday on the final evening of the Germany Tour and incorporating it into a team gala with riders, support staff and sponsors, is firmly convinced that there are once again enough companies in Germany that could afford to invest in cycling. The hurdle, he says, is understanding how the sport works. Or, in marketing terms: how to capitalise on it. “It’s just different from a stadium, where a spectator pays an entry fee and then spends the whole time watching sport and seeing perimeter advertising.”
The 2026 Tour of Germany proves that cycling is once again attracting thousands of people here in Germany. It is estimated that up to 33 million people watched the global TV broadcasts in 190 countries. Estimating the number of spectators along the route is a challenge, and the organisers do not wish to give specific figures. Here and there, there is talk of 500,000 people. “It was incredible. In every town, no matter how small, people were lining the streets and cheering. On the Kalmit, it was a bit like the Tour de France,” says sporting director Felix Linders. “I haven’t been doing this for ages, but I’ve never experienced anything like it,” adds the 23-year-old.
A faster path to success
Ultimately, however, it is mainly those who ride at the front and win who get noticed. That is why the team does not follow the path of other KT teams, which see themselves primarily as breeding grounds for young talent. Storck-MRW Bau has an international flavour, both in terms of its riders and its support staff. Developing young talent isn’t necessarily the top priority, as team manager Schubert also confirms. “You can’t win with young riders alone. You also need a few more experienced riders who deliver results, from whom the youngsters can learn. You need clear leaders and riders who support them.” That is not the traditional approach in a KT team. “But we don’t want to do what everyone else is doing.”
Taking a different approach – that’s usually how you’d describe Markus Storck. The dynamic bicycle manufacturer, who not only acts as the title sponsor but also supplies the bikes, believes the team is also on the right track. “With Julian joining us through MRW-Bau, the team now has a very professional image. And that’s important. We’ve got really good kit and a really good environment. That also attracts potentially good riders.” The fact that the team is becoming more international could also be an advantage in the long run. “That way, you learn to work with international riders. That’s also important for the next step.”
On the way to becoming a household name
This enigmatic next step is somehow ever-present, even though no one in the team is yet willing to specify when it might happen or what it will entail. It would probably be too early, too. It was only in March that Schubert and Rammler had the team organised enough for racing to begin. Half a year later, Edgar Cadena has secured the first two victories in Asturias, alongside around twenty top-10 finishes leading up to the Tour of Germany. “We can certainly be satisfied with that. The strong start in April in particular gave us another real boost,” says Rammler, who is now also hoping for a strong finish to the season. “But it’s also been a turbulent year,” says Schubert. “There are still a few things that need to fall into place. Lots of people want to have their say and get involved because everyone is highly motivated.”
This is not an uncommon phenomenon in young, growing organisations. However, the foundations have been laid at Storck-MRW Bau. Future development will depend primarily on how successful the search for sponsors proves to be. However, the sporting successes throughout the year – and particularly at the Tour of Germany – as well as the overall atmosphere during that week in August, give cause for hope that Storck-MRW Bau could develop into another established force on the national cycling scene.