The German professional cyclist Maximilian Schachmann is annoyed by comparisons with the Ullrich era.
“As an athlete who has nothing to do with it,” he suffers, the 28-year-old told the Internet provider “t-online”. When Jan Ullrich won the Tour de France 25 years ago, Schachmann was two years old. “A lot of people think nothing has changed in cycling since then.”
There is no question that the sport has suffered as a result, said the road champion from 2019 and 2021. “We do everything for a clean sport, we make a huge effort to be among the best in the world.” However, he is still often asked about doping and cannot understand why so many people are so skeptical about our sport these days. Of course, our performance is extreme, but we don’t do anything different every day and we are talented.”
Hoping for the start of the tour
Schachmann is currently worried about his participation in the Tour de France because of a positive corona test. The 109th Tour of France starts on Friday in Copenhagen. Schachmann explained that his Bora-hansgrohe racing team had postponed the nomination “due to the current corona situation”.
Recently, numerous corona cases had occurred in cycling. More than 40 riders had to end the Tour de Suisse prematurely. There were also three positive tests in the Bora team, including the Russian Alexander Vlasov, who had to leave the race as first overall. Schachmann, on the other hand, finished the tour in tenth place and only tested positive afterwards. Born in Berlin, he had already contracted Corona at the beginning of the year and then had to deal with a serious infection.