André Greipel is unhappy about the behavior of the German Federation ahead of the World Championships in Doha (Qatar). Germany had three favorites for the world title but the race turned out to be a real fiasco. "It was a disaster," Der Gorilla tells Het Nieuwsblad .

Eventually Greipel finished 42th, while John Degenkolb and Marcel Kittel abandoned after having worked hard for their leader.

"It was primarily unfair for Marcel and me how we were treated by the German federation before the race. They played mental games with us. Marcel and I were not ourselves in the run-up to the Worlds. Last year they said it was for Degenkolb in Richmond and this time for me. I believed in that but eventually I lost a lot of energy to try to show that I was the leader of Die Mannschaft . Now I know better. It wourld have been better to do things the way I always do because in the end it's all been for nothing. Our federation is also responsible for many poor results in September. I know I had better sprinting in the legs than this. It was a disaster. For myself. For the federation. For everyone."

In an interview with Radsport-News, Greipel admitted that it was probably his final chance to become world champion.

"Maybe it was my last World Championships," he said in Abu Dhabi where is about to start his final race of the year. "I expect that the course will not be for me in the next few years so I leave it behind and try to look ahead."

Later Greipel posted the following blog on his website where he doesn't elaborate on his criticism of the federation:

"Around 48 hours after the World Cup, here are some infos about the race from my point of view.

"The German team was very motivated and well prepared for the race. All riders, coaches and the sporting management had invested a great effort to be well prepared. Peter Sagan proved again, that you don’t need 6 or even 9 riders to become champion. Congrats to Peter for his strong performance. He’s got such a wide range of abilities, which no other cyclist in the world has got. Not only his diverse physical abilities and his self-confidence are unique, he also can read a race pretty good.

"Through the preparatory work of Nils Politt, Jasha Sütterlin and Tony Martin, John Degenkolb and I could jump into into the first echelon. After another curve and an even narrower road, I couldn’t get into the next created echelon and so I quickly found myself in the second group. A little bit later John fell back with a defect and had to join the second group where Marcel and I were trying to get closer to the leading group. Without this defect Dege could have a had a chance to fight about the world title.

"We tried everything to close the gap but we had no chance. Especially the teams from Belgium and Italy with 8 riders gave full speed and kept us at a distance. We had a realistic chance of the podium, but simply did not act consistently enough at the crucial moments. Even when we rode the laps on Pearl Island we gave everything in the first three laps to get closer but little by little our resources were gone. For certain our time trial riders could have helped us here, but unfortunately the wind wasn’t on our side this day. In my opinion,  all the speculation about our team were useless. Marcel and John have proven that they are team players. They have sacrificed themselves for me. I really appreciate it. And I respect all of my team mates for the work they have done.

"I will learn from these experiences and I already look forward to the new season. Cycling is my passion and my job at the same time. If there are possible improvements then I will focus on them and continue the hard work to become even better. I’m gonna fight for every millimeter.

"I have been the captain of the German team and of course I’m taking responsibility for the race. It’s always a great honor to represented Germany, so knew I wanted to finish this race, even there was nothing to gain."