Fabian Wegmann turned 34 in the summer and has had a difficult season in which he again had to fight back to the peloton after a serious injury. While the three-time German champion has left Garmin-Sharp after three years there, the US team made him still a tempting offer.
"The team management wanted me to take over as sports director," Wegmann said in an interview with radsport-news.com. "I would also have liked to stay, but as a rider, because I still feel good, have fun cycling again and am not yet through with the cycling. After I survived the injury, I have decided to definitely go for another two years."
That would not have been possible with Garmin manager Jonathan Vaughters- especially after the merger with the selection of Cannondale riders was very large and the management will rely on younger riders in the future. Since it was a nice coincidence that Michael Skelde, team manager of the ambitious Danish racing team Cult Energy, which will be equipped in the coming season with a Professional Continental license, contact with Wegmann soon begun.
"Michael Skelde called me and I was very impressed by his plans and the philosophy of the team that wants to grow from year to year. And now I would like to try something new," said Wegmann, but does not see the change in the second division of cycling as a descent.
"I do not feel that way, as one with a smaller team has more freedom and choose the races to target and can prepare for it," said the classics specialist who was impressed above all that Cult Energy will strive for a wildcard for Amstel Gold, one of his favorite races in which he had to leave the captaincy in the past three years to work mostly for teammates. That should change in 2015.
"Sure, the Amstel Gold Race is a great destination for spring, we should get a wild card, then I would have the whole team behind me, which was not possible in the last few years," said Wegmann, who can also imagine still being a pro beyond 2016.
"Then I decide whether end it, but currently I'm wasting no thought," he said, and mentioned as a reason for his severe injury he had suffered in the spring at the Giro, when he, in a fall, tore two muscles together with the tendon from the pelvis.
This was followed by an operation with a specialist in Munich and in September the comeback. "Some have said that it would not be as fast possible. I have endured so much pain in rehab and at the physio like never before in training or racing and am now ready to race again. "
That he at least wants to ride again for two years has to do with the fact that Cult Energy will only be his fifth professional team, as he usually rode with longer-term contracts. "If it were up to me, then it would be even less than before four teams were: Gerolsteiner and Milram have indeed resolved, Leopard and now Garmin, while it has thus acted in each case by special circumstances," he said.
This fall, however, is not only a career change, but also the return of Freiburg in the old country. After about two years of construction, the family will move into the new house in Münster and because of the move fails and the mandatory at many professionals autumn holiday. In the coming weeks, then standing at a meeting with the team management, he will decide his race programme.
Wegmann hopes for referrals not only from the Amstel Gold Race, but also by renowned tours such as the Tour de Suisse or the Critérium du Dauphiné. "We will probably ride many races in France and strive for 2016 to participate in a Grand Tour" Wegmann said, looking ahead.
He is hoping for a similar development as at MTN Qhubeka. The South African team was equipped with a wildcard and celebrated at one of the largest one-day races in the world a sensational triumph, as Gerald Ciolek won the 2013 spring classic Milan-San Remo against the assembled elite of the World Tour.
Whether he trusts himself a similar coup? "To stand on the podium of a Classic, as in 2006 at the Tour of Lombardy, would be my dream," said Wegmann.
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