Last season Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin) got a fantastic stage win at the Tour de Franc. . In 2016 it did not go so well for the German. Geschke did not get a notable success in his 78 races. An eleventh at the GP de Montréal was the best result. "My balance is rather negative," the 30-year-old told radsport-news.com about his cycling year in which he was also suffered from injury.

With a seventh and eighth place in the Vuelta a Andalucia and Paris-Nice, Geschke was in the top 10 twice in the spring. "During the winter and spring, I was injured or sick several times, and even though I was in good shape, I simply missed the personal results. The bad spring was a big disappointment," he said.

The 19th place at Milan-Sanremo where Geschke after a strong performance was the best German rider, could not make up for it. He was far below his personal expectations in the Ardennes classics which are among his favorite races: 42nd in the Amstel Gold Race was the best result - unimaginable for a classics rider like Geschke. And the Tour de France did also not go according to plan. There was no breakaway coup like in 2015 where won in Pra-Loup.

On the other hand, Geschke participated in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after the Tour de France. "That was my highlight of the season," said the Giant rider who was able to take a respectable 13th place in the individual time trial.

In 2017 Geschke will be in his ninth year in the team of manager Iwan Spekenbrink which will compete under the Sunweb name. He is now one of the veteranriders in the team. "Next year, I want to be competitive in the Ardennes classics in the spring again and then of course do a good Tour with the start in Düsseldorf," he said.