In June, Simon Geschke (Giant-Shimano) brought an end to a victory drought of more than three years at the GP Kanton Aargau. However, the German is not completely satisfied with his 2014 season. “The season had ups and downs,” Geschke told radsport-news.com.

At least the first half of the year went according to plan. Even before his coup in Switzerland, he was only beaten by Albert Contador on the 30% final climb in stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriacto after a very strong performance.

Geschke took another second place in stage 11 of the Giro d’talia where only Contador’s teammate Michael Rogers managed to beat him by launching a wily late attack.

Geschke was also excelling in the Ardennes classics. After a fourth place in the Brabantse Pijl, the Giant-Shimano rider was sixth in the Amstel Gold Race. “In addition to my win at the GP Kanton Aargau, the result in the Netherlands was my personal highlight,” he said.

Despite his good first half of the season, he was a surprise omission from the Giant-Shimano team for the Tour de France. “This was the most bitter experience in 2014 because until then the team had always been able to count on me, both as domestique and to achieve results,” the all-rounder said. He added: “However, there was no discussion and during the summer I accepted the situation on my balcony.”

After a long break from training, Geschke wanted to get back into form for the Canadian WorldTour races and the road World Championships. However, things didn’t go according to plan. In Montreal and Quebec, he narrowly missed out on the top 15. Hence, the German is still waiting for his first WorldTour victory. At the Worlds, he worked as a reliable domestique for John Degenkolb and finished 39th.

“Unfortunately, these races didn’t go like the ones in the spring which annoyed me a bit,” admitted Geschke who not only got attention due to his sporting results. “This year the strangest things was definitely the never-ending questions and comments about my beard,” he explained.

In the upcoming season, Geschke wants to build on the strong first half of his 2014 season in the jersey of Giant-Alpecin which is now riding under a German flag. “Especially in the WorldTour races I want to ride for the victory and at best take a win,” he said about his goals, before adding that he won’t forget his teammates.

“I also want to learn as a domestique. With Marcel Kittel, John Degenkolb, Tom Dumoulin and Warren Barguil, we have riders in the team that can and will win a lot of races. I hope to be able to make a contribution," said Geschke.