Germany tour
Yates triumphs on the Schauinsland – Geschke celebrates
Celebrated in Freiburg: Simon Geschke drives through the finish area on the Schauinsland. photo
© Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa
Brit Adam Yates wins the king’s stage of the Deutschland Tour and slips into the overall leader’s red jersey. But before and after the stage, Freiburg celebrates local hero Simon Geschke.
Simon Geschke made his big appearance before the exchange of blows on his local mountain. In bright sunshine, the professional cyclist who lives in Freiburg was celebrated by the fans as the “mountain king of hearts” before the start of the third stage of the Deutschland Tour.
“It was a beautiful day”
Just under a month earlier, the 36-year-old native of Berlin had just missed winning the mountain jersey at the Tour de France. After the 148.9 kilometer stage from Freiburg to the top of the 1207 meter high Schauinsland, Geschke ultimately had to settle for 30th place in the daily classification. “I can’t do magic, my legs just weren’t that great today,” said Geschke at the finish. “Apparently my body needs a break now. I still enjoyed the stage today. There were a lot of people on the road bike – it was a nice day,” he said with satisfaction.
3:12 minutes before Geschke crossed the finish line, Adam Yates secured the win of the king’s stage as a soloist and at the same time took over the red jersey of the overall leader. The 30-year-old Brit therefore has the best chance of succeeding last year’s winner Nils Politt in Stuttgart on Sunday.
Yates breaks away successfully
In the sometimes heavy rain, Yates attacked the 11.6-kilometer final climb up to Freiburg’s local mountain with an average gradient of 6.5 percent, just under six kilometers from the finish. Second on the day was Pello Bilbao from Spain, 19 seconds back, followed by Mauri Vansevenant from Belgium. The best German was Augsburg’s Georg Zimmermann in fifth, 29 seconds behind.
With his coup, Yates was able to replace the Italian Alberto Bettiol as overall leader and goes into the final section on Sunday over 186.6 kilometers from Schiltach to Stuttgart with a lead of 30 seconds over Bilbao. Zimmermann is fifth, 49 seconds behind Yates. “My goal was to lose as little time as possible today so that I can start a sweeping attack tomorrow. We’ll see how it works,” said Zimmermann on ARD.
“It’s my first win in a long time. It was also good to collect the bonus seconds. The 30 seconds on Pello Bilbao are a good cushion,” said Yates, adding with a view to the final day: “I hope they will be enough. But I heard that the last stage will be quite difficult again.”
Buchmann can’t keep up
In the meantime, Emanuel Buchmann had to bury his hopes for the day’s victory and thus also for the overall victory around eight kilometers from the finish. The Ravensburger could not follow the pace of Yates or Zimmermann and finished 18th, 2:07 minutes behind Yates. “I hadn’t had a good day. It didn’t go well,” said Buchmann.
From a German point of view, after the end of the stage, the focus was once again on Geschke, who was allowed to sign the golden book of the city of Freiburg after the award ceremony. “It’s a huge honor for me. Especially as a newcomer, it’s proof that you’ve been accepted here and that the city is proud of what you’ve achieved,” said Geschke, who has lived in Breisgau since 2012, of the German Press Agency.