“Would have had it in my legs”
Mountain jersey mistake massively annoys the German tour professional
7/1/2023 6:59 p.m
Centimeters separate Georg Zimmermann from the red dotted mountain jersey on the first stage of the Tour de France. There is no sporting reason for the German to annoyingly miss. The 25-year-old is angry with himself. “I haven’t done my homework.”
Georg Zimmermann was a few centimeters short of the start of the Tour de France to succeed Simon Geschke in Germany. But the Bavarian lost the highest-paying mountain sprint on the first stage and had to cede the famous white jersey with the red dots to the American Neilson Powless. Zimmermann’s Intermarché team had decided to conquer the mountain jersey before the demanding section around Bilbao. Now the Augsburger is two points behind Powless.
“It was a shame because I just didn’t do my homework. The target tape was covered by the curve and my speedometer showed me that there was still 300 meters uphill. But the rating is not always taken at the very highest point,” said the 25 year old. “I only saw the line 80 meters before the finish line, so I couldn’t overtake anymore. It’s annoying, it would have been in my legs.”
Most recently, from a German perspective, Simon Geschke wore the mountain jersey for nine days on the last tour. The Berliner was still intercepted by the Dane Jonas Vingegaard in the classification. However, the 37-year-old was allowed to wear the jersey to Paris on a proxy basis as Vingegaard held the yellow jersey.
He initially left open whether Zimmermann would try again on Sunday. “The points are awarded quite early in the stage, you would have to go into the group. It wasn’t fun today because the group was only two minutes away,” said Zimmermann. He wanted to assess the situation calmly and seek a conversation with his sporting director. Zimmermann is one of the seven German tour participants due to his climbing qualities as a contender for a stage win. At this year’s Tour of France, more than 55,000 meters of altitude must be mastered.