Tourist
Emanuel Buchmann was fourth of the Tour de France in 2019. It was so good long before and since then no German cycling professional. Now Buchmann is looking for the way to old strength in a new team.
The Tour de France reaches the Pyrenees and thus terrain in which Emanuel Buchmann feels most comfortable – the high mountains. Buchmann arrives there with mixed feelings after eleven stages of the France tour. In the overall classification, it is currently listed in 20th place. His gap to the yellow jersey is just over a quarter of an hour.
That is significantly more than the 31 -year -old cycling professional from Ravensburg wanted at this point. But nothing worked for Buchmann at the first mounting stage last Monday in the central massif. “Really bad” Be it there, Buchmann told the Sportschau at the start of the 11th stage in Toulouse. “I really had one of my worst days on the bike so far.”
The goal remains top ten – says the team
After France, Buchmann with the declared goal of driving under the top ten of the overall classification. But that will be difficult now, which is why he is now “Rather go on stages” become. With your team you can see it a little differently, there you don’t want to write off the space in the first ten.
“It would be a bad situation if we were targeting the podium”says the French team of the French Equipe Cofidis,, Cédrik Vasseur. “But we hope for a top ten place, a good result, that is not a problem for the days. I still believe that this is possible.”
Buchmann has been driving for the team from the north of France since the beginning of the season. Vasseur had approached Buchmann in the summer of 2024 to convince him of a change. “He was on the market. He was not for him from his previous team Giro d’Italia was nominated and was very disappointed “says Vasseur. “We knew very early on that he didn’t want to stay in his old team.”
Stop falls Buchmann after 2019
The old team was the German team Red Bull-Bora hansgrohe. And Buchmann, an introverted character who prefers the quiet tones, is not very good to speak of his old team. He is “Realive has been kidnapped”Buchmann had said in an interview with the Munich evening newspaper before the tour. “I have been asked questions and I honestly answered them”said Buchmann of the Sportschau in Toulouse. But now he prefers to look ahead.
But without the review, Buchmann’s current situation cannot be understood. He ended the Tour de France 2019 in fourth place. He was only 25 seconds for the podium in Paris. It was the best placement in the overall classification of the tour since 2006. At that time Andreas Klöden achieved Paris as third.
Buchmann’s success should lead him one step further at the Tour de France 2020, at least that was the plan. At the Dauphiné-Tour a few weeks before the start of the tour was Buchmann in top form. But a severe fall ended the hopes for a podium. Buchmann ended the tour as 38 .. The following year he traveled to Giro d’Italia as a captain, fell again and could not end the tour of Italy, but which he then ended in 2023 as in the top ten as seventh.
The break with the old team
But Buchmann wasn’t really happy anymore. “In retrospect, I would do some things differently”says Buchmann. “In 2020 I wouldn’t have started on the tour after my fall in the Dauphine. And I don’t know if I would have stayed with Bora for so long.”
The final break with the team then came last year when Buchmann was not nominated for the Giro, although – as he puts it – the role of the co -captain was promised. Ralph Denk, the team boss of the Equipe Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, this promise always denied.
Buchmann’s interview in the evening newspaper before the Grand Départ This year, Denk felt as follow -up. “I think that’s a shame”said thinking after the first stage in Lille. Buchmann had achieved his greatest career success with the team. “If he then shows us so little gratitude, the team towards the partners, I do not know whether this is the big strength after such a long time.”
Appreciation in the new team
Buchmann leaves this criticism relatively cold. “I don’t think that is leaving when you are honest”he says. In any case, he now feels more confidence in his new team cofidis and not “Such a basic satisfaction” As with Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe.
Buchmann is not the only former driver of the German racing team who looks back there in anger. Maximlian Schachmann and Lennard Kämna had also recently complained about the lack of trust when they missed the connection due to health problems or in Kämnas Fall.
Like the others, Buchmann is now experiencing a new appreciation. “Emanuel is really a pot driver. You can’t go to the top five of the tour if you are not”says Cédrik Vasseur. Buchmann fell heavily again last June. It was therefore clear that the beginning of the season would be difficult. “But now he’s on the way back to the best form.” On Thursday at the first Pyrenäenenen stage Hautacam Should he demonstrate that.