Written by 03:54 Inspiring, Sports

A message to my friend Marcel Kittel

Marcel Kittel Simon Geschke Tour de France

The first time I met Marcel was 2007. He was a time trial specialist back then haha. He was two years younger than me and we didn’t race together that much on the national under 23 team but I already liked him then.

Later on, we became teammates at Skil-Shimano in 2011. He was exactly how I remembered him from the under 23 times. We got on really well immediately. 

That year was his neo-pro season and he probably went on to have one of the most successful seasons of a neo-pro ever. He won 17 races including his first Grand Tour victory in the Vuelta. It was amazing.

Despite all the success, he was really humble and never changed.

This sport is so demanding, I understand what he is going through now. Being a professional cyclist is not a bad life but it’s not always easy. I really hope he comes back to the sport but I told him he should do what’s best for him at the moment. Don’t listen to all the opinions. If he doesn’t feel like being a professional cyclist, there’s more to life. The good thing for him is his career has already been outstanding.

He had made such a big impact in many different places with his career. In the Skil -Shimano days, because he was winning, his level forced the whole team to develop. We were all very inexperienced but his raw power to win sprints made us more professional.

I remember in the Tour of Poland in 2011, we didn’t have a good leadout team. I was one of the last guys for him and only dropped him off with 3km to go and I’d think “oh we messed that up today,” but he would still win. He won four stages that race.

All of a sudden, not long after that, we were up there in the Tour de France doing these unbelievable leadouts that was motivated by Marcel. He won four stages in his first Tour de France in 2013. It was a crazy experience. We got the yellow jersey, the first one in the team’s history.

Simon Geschke

I was his roommate in that Tour and he never changed, he stayed humble. It was a fun three weeks.

I would say Marcel played the biggest part in rejuvenating German cycling. [Tweet this by clicking here]

He’s such a nice guy. When you see him in interviews, that’s really him. People really like him. Public TV in Germany came back to cycling because of him and this new generation of riders helping the sport out of the dark years. He helped the Germans get over those times and give the media more positive news to talk about.

His leadership style is a very humble one. I was always surprised how you never felt like he is the fastest sprinter in the world when he is in the room. He communicated clearly what he wanted but it was really good working with him because he respected everyone.

Marcel Kittel

The pressure is a lot for a rider like him. He gets a lot of attention no matter what he does. A guy like Marcel gets unwanted attention when he is not winning – like this year. It affects him. The downside of being so successful is you have a lot more people paying attention to you. When you win, everyone is your friend and when you don’t win, everyone is a critic. That would be hard for anyone to deal with.

I hope for a great recovery for him and I hope he comes back to the sport. He will always remain one of my favourite teammates ever.

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Tags: , , Last modified: Jan 19, 2020
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