Cycling: At the beginning of December, most teams have already completed their activities on the transfer market. A few drivers are still looking for a new team. Surprisingly, something could have happened for Stefan Schumacher. Riccardo Zoidl returns to his previous team.
resignation from resignation?
Stefan Schumacher actually wanted to end his career after this season. Accordingly, he no longer went looking for a new team. Now the end of the career seems to be postponed a bit. As he revealed to his colleagues from radsport-news.com, the German has probably received a pretty interesting offer. It is not yet clear which team this will be. The now 35-year-old can look back on a very long and intensive career. In 2002 he started with Team T-Mobile, having his most successful time between 2006 and 2008 with Team Gerolsteiner. Back then he won the Eneco Tour, the Amstel Gold Race, two stages at the Giro d'Italia and he even finished third in the 2007 World Championships. After being convicted of EPO doping in 2008, he was serving a ban. Since then he has been under contract with four teams and has not been able to repeat his old performances. Most recently, he raced for the Christina Jewelry Pro Cycling Team.
One step back to take one forward
Unfortunately, Riccardo Zoidl was not able to meet the high expectations placed on him. After an outstanding season in the Gourmetfein Wels team in 2013, the Austrian switched to the WorldTour team Trek in 2014. There he was used as a helper, but should develop himself through it. However, he was not able to play to his strengths in time trials and in the mountains in the WorldTour races. He only won the Austrian road race championship in 2014 and a stage in the Tour of Croatia in 2016. The contract of the now 28-year-old was not extended by the Trek-Segafredo team. Zoidl has now decided to take a step back in order to ultimately be able to take a step forward again. He has signed with his old team, which is now under the name of Felbermayr Simplon Wels in the Continental category. There he would like to repeat his victory in the Tour of Austria.
