John Degenkolb

John Degenkolb was born in Gera in 1989 and began his professional cycling career in 2008 with the Continental team Thüringer Energie Team. He then switched to the World Tour team HTC-Highroad in 2011 before moving on to the then Team Argos-Shimano, one of the predecessors of Team DSM, a year later. From 2017 to 2019, he was under contract with Team Trek-Segafredo and then moved to Team Lotto Soudal, which now competes under the name Lotto-Dstny. In 2022, he then returned to Team DSM, for whom he currently rides. The team is now known as DSM-Firmenich.

John Degenkolb: The greatest successes

Degenkolb is a classics specialist and has also enjoyed great success as a sprinter in tours. In addition to victories in all three grand tours, the German has also won several cycling monuments.

Degenkolb first attracted attention in 2011 when he won two stages of the Criterium du Dauphine and the classic Eschborn-Frankfurt. In 2012, he not only finished fifth in the Milan-San-Remo Monument, but also won the Vuelta a Espana five stages - more than any German before. One year later, Degenkolb won a stage of the Giro d'Italia and won Paris-Tours, the first one-day classic of his career. In 2014, he attracted attention again at the Vuelta, where he took four stage wins. The following year, Degenkolb won the Milan-San-Remo and Paris-Roubaix monuments of cycling and celebrated his tenth stage win in total at the Tour of Spain with a stage win at the Vuelta. At the Tour de France In 2018, Degenkolb finished on the podium three times and celebrated a stage win. In 2023, he rode in the leading group at Paris-Roubaix for a long time and came home after a collision with the eventual winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) crossed the finish line in seventh place.

John Degenkolb: Injuries and illnesses

In 2016, Degenkolb was injured by a car in an accident during a training ride with some of his team-mates at the time. He suffered a broken forearm and almost lost the tip of his left index finger. In 2017, he was hospitalised in the run-up to the Road World Championships to undergo heart and lung examinations. At the 2020 Tour de France, Degenkolb crashed during stage 1, injuring his knees and finishing outside the qualifying time.

Degenkolb on Instagram

John Degenkolb is also active on the well-known social media platform Instagram. There he keeps his more than 150,000 followers up to date with his life as a professional cyclist and regularly posts pictures of his rides.