The Wait of a Nation

Ein Stein. Lifting the cobbled trophy last Sunday was a triumph for John Degenkolb and the culmination of a lot of team work. But behind the scenes it’s also the remarkable story of riders as ambassadors who’ve managed to convince German TV to give the sport a second chance, partly thanks to solid results, partly thanks to soft power and coffee.

“I’ve often said that if there was one race to interest the Germans, it’s got to be Paris-Roubaix. It’s so crazy, it’s unlike anything else. It can only appeal to the people in my country”

– John Degenkolb, L’Equipe, 13 April 2015

Now Degenkolb didn’t win Paris-Roubaix out of patriotic duty but he’s concious of the media impact his win can have. He’s not alone. Earlier this week L’Equipe told the tale of how Marcel Kittel was supposed to share a coffee with German television executives at home but the meeting went on for five hours. It happened a year ago and the newspaper says he helped play a significant role in getting the ARD channel to return to the Tour de France.

“It’s also my role to defend the interests of my sport. It had been said that we had to get results to be credible. With Tony (Martin), André (Greipel) and John (Degenkolb), we’re within our rights to demand more coverage.”

– Marcel Kittel, L’Equipe, 8 April 2015

We can see how the success of a rider might draw the media in. But actively arguing their case in a direct meeting with broadcasters? That’s extra.

There’s a long term thread here. Go back to 2011 when John Degenkolb was a neo-pro with the HTC-High Road team. He was a promising amateur after a silver medal in the 2010 Worlds in Geelong and two stages of the Tour de l’Avenir. But he quickly went from promise to delivery in the pro ranks with a stage win in the Volta ao Algarve, another in the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, then he won the Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt in Germany. All good but things went up a level when he took two stages in the Dauphiné, a neo-pro winning in the World Tour is rare and he even outsprinted Edvald Boasson-Hagen back in the days when the Norwegian was a winning machine. Then the team folded.

All that promise, all those instant big wins and yet he joined Argos-Shimano, a Pro Conti team in cycling’s second division that has since mutated into Giant-Alpecin. They might be a German team today but they spent a long time as a Dutch team with a francophile vibe. Back then Argos-Shimano was a modest outfit that, for years under the Skil-Shimano label had tried to seduce ASO for that wildcard invitations. Despite Dutch sponsors they’d hired a handful of Frenchman, often raced in France and were an early joiner of the MPCC, a deliberate bonjour to Christian Prudhomme.

At the Tour de l’Ain one year an Argos manager spotted a lanky rider, “wearing a white jersey and with his build and his climbing style I thought it was another Colombian” but it was actually Warren Barguil, the Frenchman was signed to the team. This was a team trying to break through but when Degenkolb signed during 2011 that had yet to happen. It was a chance to link up with an old team mate from the amateur days… Marcel Kittel. The two work well together to the point where we might wonder about primacy in the team but the squad and the leaders manage it all.

Come 2012 and the team got a wildcard invitation to the Tour but the ticket was the triumph, to take part was the reward instead of winning. Success came later that year when Degenkolb won five stages in the Vuelta.

“Nobody really understood why I’d joined a second division team, but I know today that it was my best decision. Since 2012 we’ve built a ream in our image. We haven’t always had good times but we’ve been able to bounce back.”

– John Degenkolb, L’Equipe, 13 April 2015

There have been plenty of good times. The bad moments? At one point the team ended its deal with Argos Oil on the promise of a wealthy American philanthropist who pledged to sponsor the team but the deal fell through and team was close to collapse. Bicycle sponsor Giant stepped in at the last minute. Another low was over Kittel’s tale from his amateur days with tales of blood irradiation, the practice of removing a some blood and shining UV light on it to kill bacteria and then re-infusing it. It wasn’t banned at the time and WADA’s since ruled that it’s not doping but it was an awkward moment for a team that’s quietly built the image of a clean squad.

Ask who the best manager in the sport is and obvious names come to mind, think Sky’s Dave Brailsford, Bjarne Riis and Eusebio Unzué of Movistar. But what of Iwan Spekenbrink of Giant-Alpecin? He’s built a team up over the years that’s now beating the best and nobody seems to have a bad word to say about them.

Better still Spekenbrink’s landed a German sponsor and thanks to behind-the-scenes activism from his own riders, they’re helping to put the sport back on TV in Europe’s largest and most prosperous country. Sponsors couldn’t be happier. The return of German TV is provisional. A Damoclean sword hangs above the Tour de France, ready to fall on ASO’s accounts and worry sponsors hoping for a stable, pan European audience. If ARD are back after quitting in 2011, ZDF fled in 2007 and still refuse to come back. So things have turned around but the wait goes on for normality to resume, it’s curious that the Tour de France is a roaring success in France and ignored in Germany, as if the Rhine was an ocean rather than a river.

Conclusion

A team win last Sunday but behind this, a long term strategy that’s taken Skil-Shimano from hunting wildcards and fighting for the Tour de France’s lanterne rouge. Now they’re winning some of the biggest races, whether the classics or grand tour stage wins and all without a sugardaddy sponsor. A masterplan? Maybe… maybe not as the story could have been different if Giant hadn’t stepped in. Today a slender budget means they still have to pick their fights, they can’t compete on as many fronts as the likes of Team Sky, BMC Racing and Katusha and they might not be able to afford Degenkolb for too long.

Meanwhile German TV viewers have waited years to see the Tour de France once again on a mainstream channel after years of absence. André Greipel and Tony Martin have done plenty to help with impressive results over the years but this didn’t seem to cut through. Wins and World Championship titles have ensured triumph for German cycles but what if Marcel Kittel’s coffee chat was the clincher that ended the wait?