“Last season as a professional in 2024”
Simon Geschke finally gets off his bike
January 4, 2024, 11:59 a.m
At the Tour de France 2022, Simon Geschke will wear the mountain jersey for longer than any other German. It is still unclear whether he will take part in the Tour of France again this year. What is already certain, however, is that the 37-year-old will end his career after this season.
Simon Geschke will contest his final season as a professional cyclist in 2024. The 37-year-old announced this himself. “2024 will be a special season for me because I have decided that it will be the last for me as a professional. I am highly motivated to retire after a good year,” wrote Geschke on X. Geschke will end up spending 16 seasons in the peloton have. He has celebrated three victories so far, including a stage win at the 2015 Tour de France.
The Berlin native will start his last year as a professional on January 16th. Geschke was nominated by his team for the Tour Down Under (January 16th to 21st) and will then compete in the Surf Coast Classic (January 25th) and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (January 28th) in Australia. The climbing specialist with the distinctive beard has been under contract with the French team Cofidis since 2021.
“A spectacle at the limit”
The first highlight is supposed to be the Giro d’Italia (May 4th to 26th), which the climbing specialist is taking part in for the fourth time after 2014, 2015 and 2017. “The Giro is simply the Grand Tour with the most charm. I have ridden the race three times and always had good experiences. The atmosphere is great, but not quite as crazy as the Tour,” Geschke told “CyclingMagazine”.
If he is in good form, Geschke wants to take part in the Tour de France (June 29th to July 21st) for the twelfth time. However, the biggest race in the world also has its pitfalls. “There is no race in which I am as afraid in the field as in the Tour de France. The aggressive driving style in the field, the motorcycles, the spectators – it is a spectacle at the limit. Beautiful, demanding, emotional, but also “extremely dangerous. That makes the tour a little less attractive for me,” said Geschke.
In 2022, the Tour gave Geschke’s already successful career a further boost when he wore the mountain jersey for nine days – longer than any German before him. However, he then lost it on the last difficult stage. In the end, the veteran came second in the ranking, but was allowed to wear the jersey on behalf of the Danish Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard on the last stage in Paris. The Corona drama of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo will also be remembered, when Geschke tested positive shortly before the road race and ended up in quarantine instead of starting.