Greipel, Degenkolb, Tony Martin or Marcel Kittel - The favorites of those who were supposed to wear the championship jersey with the black and red gold stripes at this year 's Tour de France were spiked with names that currently represent the image of German cycling in the world.
In the end, however, everything turned out quite differently, and an outsider named Marcus Burghardt from the German WorldTour Team BORA - hansgrohe won the race - and he can now present that beautiful jersey in France for the next three weeks.
So far so good. But it was once again Nikodemus Holler, proved his strong shape and finally reached a brilliant 13th place. A great result could one mean - among all the world class riders in the end still to be there.
If you ask Niko today, he would surely not b happy with the result. So he is: very ambitious. And it could not be blamed on him, because up to 25 kilometers before the finish line Niko was in a 5-man chasing group behind two leaders in the best way to an absolute top result. But cycling would not be cycling, if things do not change in the end.
The guys were put in the last round and the "grains" invested were ultimately missing to a result under the first 10.
