Tour de France - New German Cycling Talent

German cycling allrounder Buchmann

Emanuel Buchmann no longer cycles under the radar. As the first German in a long time he has dedicated himself to the fight for the overall ranking of the Tour de France - and the prospects are not bad. Emanuel is really a calm, modest and down to earth personality. He will never be a stage hero or super star in the media - he just wants to race. This is what he is doing this year. Following Jan Ullrich and Andreas Klöden Germany had never any good allround bikers - fingers crossed he will arrive in Paris, maybe as Top 10 ranked contestant.

Today he was impressive again

Within this years Tour the favorites mainly kept covered, protected by their vassals, steered by their bosses in the escort vehicles. Stay out of fall zones, drive in front, keep the overview, control runaways - and wait. Waiting for the decisive days in the high mountains. The first of these days was otoday in the Pyrenees. Started in Tarbes, 117 kilometres with a mountain arrival on the 2115 metre high Tourmalet, a primeval rock of the Tour of France, which has now stood in the way of the Tour drivers for the 82nd time. It was the shortest stage this year, but short or long, that didn't play the decisive role. The decisive role was played by the final climb. The 19 kilometre long ascent to the Tourmalet has the unpleasant characteristic of becoming steeper and steeper towards the top.

Seems indeed the Tour de France is more open than ever before in recent years. It has a man in yellow who is mysteriously fast - a French surprise! And with Emanuel Buchmann we have a new guy who can climb the podium in Paris and can keep up with the best in the world in the high mountains. Today he crossed the finish line in a fabulous fourth place on the Tourmalet while Frenchman Thibaut Pinot won. His gap to leader Alaphilippe in the overall standings is now 3:12 minutes. Overall it was a French day of celebration. The success of the mountain specialist Pinot, who jumped from a six-man top group to victory, was not even the most exciting of the day. The most exciting was Julian Alaphilippe of Team Quickstep's second place, with which the 27-year-old Frenchman defended the yellow jersey and extended his lead over last year's winner, Welsh Geraint Thomas, to 2:02 minutes. Hardly anyone believed that Alaphilippe could finish this stage just six seconds behind the winner.