Radprofi John Degenkolb muss warten, bis seine Sportart in der Corona-Krise wieder startet. Im Interview spricht er über seine Zukunftsängste, die Folgen für das Peloton und seine Hoffnung auf die Tour de France in diesem Jahr.
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He's moving (within his town) and been more involved in this process than expected because he's now got the time, obviously.
After P-R he took a time-out of a week, like he's always doing, only this time he did not have a P-R in his legs. Since tuesday he's started training again.
It's very hard for him to train and train without a clear goal. He's used to having a goal, the next race in sight since his youth. To deal with this pressure has always been his big strength.
Still he considers himself lucky compared to other riders in other countries.
He thinks a lot about the situation, not only for himself but for cycling in general. Cycling after corona will not be the same as before. Lots of races will probably vanish. Cycling will not be able to present itself like before and a negative spiral will have set in. Pro cycling will have to restructure itself. He hopes the cyclingworld will not freeze in fear but operate together.
Riders at LS have given up 30% of their income. There's only 6 people of stuff left: manager, DSs and a (virtually working) doc.
He hopes that as much as possible of the GTs, not necessarily all three of them, and the monuments will happen, that would be extremely important for the sport. That's the straw that he clings to in training.
It might be his chances in the sport are vanishing, at 33. But he can look back to a great career, and is rather thinking of other livelihoods. For instance the new blood. Month of racing have been taken from them. He's also thinking of other sports like net ball and hockey. Those who are not looking forward somehow positively will become desperate.
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