Simon Geschke believes that the loss of Marcel Kittel will have an impact on the dynamics of the Giant-Alpecin team in 2016. Geschke says that the departure of his fellow German, alongside the performances of Tom Dumoulin and Warren Barguil, will see the team’s focus shift from sprinting to general classification success in 2016.
“We saw that we can now ride for GC results in the Grand Tours. Warren was in the top 10 for a long time in the Tour de France and Tom had a chance to win the Vuelta a Espana this year. It is definitely going to get a bigger focus,” Geschke told Cyclingnews. “We will be less of a sprinter team that is for sure. Although, we still have quite a few guys who can win a sprint. Maybe we don’t have the best sprinter in the world but we will hopefully get some sprint victories with John [Degenkolb].”
Geschke is one of the longest serving members of the Giant-Alpecin team, after joining in 2009 when it was known as Skil-Shimano. Back then the team were fighting for places in the smaller races, and it was Dutch sprinter Kenny Van Hummel that secured five of their seven victories that year. Since then, Geschke has seen the team develop into a WorldTour outfit in 2013 and win two monuments this season.
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“I came to the team in 2009, and we didn’t have a bus, we were just racing with a camper,” he explained. “We really just raced to get in breakaways and showed ourselves in races like Paris-Nice. We never really had a chance to win races. It was a steady progression, it was a long process, and now we are one of the biggest teams in the world.”
Kittel might have left, but the core of the team has remained the same and the pressure will be on to improve on what they achieved in 2015. “I think we had a wonderful year with John’s two monument wins, and it will be hard to top that for sure but we will try,” said Geschke. “Hopefully next year I won’t be watching Milan-San Remo on the couch and I will be there to support him. In the Ardennes Classics we have a really good line-up with Tom Dumoulin and Warren Barguil so I think, in those races, we can be favourites for the win.”
A moment to remember
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