Saturday 17th July 2021
Sprint legend Greipel stops
The “gorilla” finally gets off the bike
Once again to Paris and then drive towards sunset. The most successful active German professional cyclist Andre Greipel announces the end of his career. It’s not surprising. The field will miss the “gorilla”.
The most successful active German professional cyclist Andre Greipel will end his career after the season. The 39-year-old announced this in a video message on Twitter the day after his birthday. The sprint oldie celebrated a total of 158 career victories and is the third most successful German in the Tour de France with eleven daily victories.
The last section of this year’s Tour of France on Sunday on the Champs-Elysees in Paris “will definitely be my last stage in the Tour de France and after the season I will end my career,” said Greipel in the video that his team Israel Start- up Nation published.
“I am super happy with everything that I have achieved together with my team-mate and the staff around me,” said Greipel: “Without my team-mates, my staff and my family, I would not have achieved any of this. I look with a lot of satisfaction in the future. “
Greipel has the last chance of his twelfth stage win in the Tour on Sunday in Paris. Greipel knows how to win on the magnificent boulevard of the French capital: in 2015 and 2016 he achieved this feat twice in a row. Rostock, known only as “Gorilla” in the peloton, has already achieved four top ten results at this year’s Grand Boucle.
“I have the goal, when a 4 is at the front at my age, to no longer sit on the bike”, Greipel had already said in the ARD documentary “Der Tanz des Gorilla”, which will be broadcast on Sunday: “This is a Goal that I will also keep. “
His contract with the Israeli team would have been valid until 2022. “Of course I will not move away from cycling and stay with it in any way,” Greipel announced.
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