On Saturday the famous Mount Fuji was in thick clouds. But three days earlier, after landing in Japan, Simon Geschke caught him nicely. The cyclist posted a photo on Facebook: He, slightly tousled in the foreground, exhausted “after the nightmare of a 26-hour journey with 8 hours at Tokyo Airport”, and in the background Mount Fuji, Japan’s famous, iconic volcano. “Pretty blatant,” wrote Geschke, the Fuji.
But when the colorful bunch of Olympic eagles approached Shizuoka Prefecture on Saturday to choose the Olympic champion below Mount Fuji on the Fuji Speedway car race track, Simon Geschke, 35, was not there. He was sitting in the quarantine hotel in Tokyo, and in retrospect the nightmare of the journey was nothing compared to what followed. Geschke was no longer just a professional cyclist who wanted to play his second and probably last Olympic Games a few days after his ninth Tour of France – he was now “the first Corona case in the German Olympic team”.
So early afternoon at the foot of Mount Fuji, the cyclists now struggled over the Kagosaka pass, the second of five violent via ferrata. And in Tokyo at the same time, the German Chef de Mission, Dirk Schimmelpfennig, and the chief Olympic doctor, Bernd Wolfarth, came to a press conference in the Olympic Village. The subject: Simon Geschke, of course. But also the nightly odyssey of the other German professional cyclists, Nikias Arndt, 29, Emanuel Buchmann, 28, and Maximilian Schachmann, 27, who were actually in the saddle, which was not clear for a long time after a day full of uncertainties, PCR tests and agreements with the authorities , and after a night that, at least for Buchmann, would be euphemistically described with the adjective “short”.
“It was a strange feeling to set the alarm clock at 3:20 am to 4:50 am,” said Buchmann later, as he leaned against a violet “Tokyo 2020” barricade. “But better than nothing, right? I think we made the best of it for the circumstances.”
The Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz becomes Olympic champion, Tour dominator Tadej Pogacar takes bronze
From an international perspective, the story of this Olympic road race was the story of some well-known Tour de France dominators who simply continued to dominate the Olympics: Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, 28, became the first cyclist in his country to become Olympic champion – after 6: 05.26 Hours and one last successful escape. And between the tour dominator Tadej Pogacar, 22, from Slovenia and the Belgian Wout van Aert, 26, the finish photo had to decide at the end of a sprint of the chasing group: Van Aert was given silver, Pogacar bronze.
It was the story of how some top representatives of this sport just can’t get tired even after three weeks of torture in France, not even from the nasty Mikuni Pass with its an average of 10.1 percent gradient, in sections over 20 percent, which the athletes defeated after about five hours without anyone being able to break away decisively. Before the Carapaz finally succeeded.
The Tour third in 2021 before the winner of three Tour stages in 2021 before the superior Tour winner in 2021 – the cycling elite was once again among themselves at the Olympics. But from a German point of view, it was a completely different story that had developed around the bike race at the foot of Mount Fuji.
The international cycling elite among themselves: Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz (center) wins the Olympic race ahead of Belgian Wout Van Aert (left) and Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar from Slovenia.
(Photo: Tim de Waele / Getty Images)
On Friday morning, Simon Geschke found out about his positive antigen test, which was noticed during the daily routine screenings. From then on he and his roommate Buchmann sat together in the hotel and waited. A nasal swab for the PCR analysis followed at lunchtime – Geschke was still sure that the matter would soon be cleared up; “You can be positive here by brushing your teeth,” he said later picture. At around 10 p.m. the PCR test was also positive, and Geschke – symptom-free and vaccinated – was driven from Shizuoka to Tokyo, where it was immediately isolated.
Buchmann was also driven a good 120 kilometers from the team hotel near the bike course to Tokyo for another test – as a gift of closest contact. It wasn’t until seven o’clock on Saturday morning that he was informed that he was negative. At eleven o’clock he got on his bike. Up to halfway through the Mikuni Pass it was fairly easy, then “my legs opened up,” he said afterwards. Six hours of cycling, 4865 vertical meters, after just two hours of sleep? Well, said Buchmann: “If I was there before, it would have been stupid not to start.” In the end he finished 29th, a good five minutes behind.
Maximilian Schachmann had skipped the tour especially for this Olympic race – and now this excitement
The legs were also the topic of Maximilian Schachmann, the German captain, who had put all his focus on this Olympic race: skipped the tour, arrived early to acclimatize. But then Schachmann was no longer allowed to leave the room on Friday, like the entire German cycling delegation, men and women: “I don’t know when I was last in bed all day,” said Schachmann when he was on Saturday evening next to Buchmann leaned against the “Tokyo 2020” cordon, “at least never before a race.” Even after the Mikuni – it went straight on, for the second time to the Kogasaka pass – Schachmann had bravely closed every gap again, but at some point it was no longer possible for him either. He was tenth.
The entire focus was on this Olympic race – and then relegated to the hotel room: Maximilian Schachmann (center) had to wait after Simon Geschke’s positive corona test before he was allowed to get on the saddle.
(Photo: Tim de Waele / AFP)
More than a few places up or down, the question now is what comes next. Geschke is isolated in the Corona Hotel near the Olympic Village “and will probably have to stay there for at least ten days,” said Schimmelpfennig, the German head of the delegation, at the DOSB press conference. After crossing the finish line in Oyama, Buchmann had to go back to Tokyo in isolation to do further PCR tests. It was still open on Saturday whether the Japanese would let him leave the country soon. Likewise, whether everyone else can return to normal at some point. For now, Schachmann, who still wants to compete in the time trial on Wednesday, has to eat in his room instead of in the hotel restaurant, for example.
Why didn’t it help that Geschke was vaccinated twice?
Bernd Wolfarth, the Olympic doctor, called all of this “bitter for the athletes” on Saturday, but it had to be “accepted in the current Corona situation”. But Wolfarth doesn’t have clear answers to other questions either – because they probably don’t exist. Where did Geschke get the virus? Still in Paris, as he himself suspects, for example at Charles de Gaulle Airport, where “absolute chaos” reigned? Or at celebrations at the end of the Tour de France? And why didn’t it help that Geschke was vaccinated twice?
Well, it has probably already helped: According to him, the CT value of his PCR test is 31, in some countries this would not be considered positive at all. Japan, on the other hand, is very strict right now. The doctor Wolfarth also considers the risk of Geschke to be or be a risk of infection because of the virtually undetectable viral load. “I would have continued the tour” with such a positive test, Geschke even claimed, but for now he’s not going anywhere in Tokyo. On Saturday evening he posted the next photo on Instagram, no Fuji this time around. A hotel room, a television, a cardboard box with a ready-made meal, with soy sauce, a green apple, coffee from a plastic cup. “Quarantine day 1 of?” He wrote.
At least Simon Geschke can get enough sleep for now.