Eschborn – Frankfurt cycle race: a tinkerer in the lead vehicle

Fabian Wegmann knows it, the emptiness after a professional career.

And the fulfillment when the leap into a second career is successful at the end of 30.

The Münster-based cyclist was a professional cyclist for 15 years, until 2016.

Socialized on his bike in the plains, he was the first German to win the mountain jersey at the Giro d'Italia.

The two victories at the Frankfurt cycling race on May 1, 2009 and 2010 are among his favorite trophies.

Staying in the cycling scene, which you have been at the mercy of for so long, is an obvious thought for many racing drivers.

Become a trainer?

Sports director in a team?

Wegmann also acquired the relevant certificates and certificates.

But: “After 15 years of living out of a suitcase, it was good.

Especially when you have small children, ”says Wegmann.

The 41-year-old has not joined a professional team with 200 travel days a year, but has, among other things, been promoted to sporting director at Eschborn-Frankfurt, which is taking place for the 60th time this Sunday.

13 WorldTour teams take part

The blond boy with the contagious smile keeps in touch and communicates with the responsible persons and drivers of the 20 teams participating in the professional race (from 1:15 p.m. live on hr television).

He knows many of them from his active days in the peloton.

13 WorldTour teams, more than ever before, are tackling the 187.4 kilometer long Taunus loop this year.

After a two-and-a-half year break, the Frankfurt race benefits from the unfamiliar date in late summer. Many top drivers use the race organized by tour organizer ASO as a dress rehearsal for the World Championship race in Flanders a week later.

Wegmann will follow the racing action in an exposed role - from the lead vehicle, which drives directly in front of the peloton or, depending on the course of the race, in front of the leading group.

From there it is connected to the team cars via radio and also has a steering function, for example for the police motorcycles.

For example, while entire relays are in action in dozens of cycle races in France, a professional peloton only visits Hesse once a year.

Wegmann sometimes warns the inexperienced motorcyclists that the professional cyclists are really shooting down the Taunus slopes at up to 100 kilometers per hour.

Role of sports director

Wegmann once took part in the Henninger race as a child and then went on the hunt for autographs and drinking bottles from the professionals.

When the ASO took over the race, he was integrated into the organization.

In 2017 initially as a so-called regulator on the pillion passenger of a motorcycle.

In pouring rain and four degrees on the Feldberg “I suffered a lot,” he remembers.

There was also the role of sporting director in his home race Münsterland-Giro.

The ASO also included him in the reanimated tour of Germany, and Wegmann has been working on routes and safety concepts ever since.

And he has been known to television viewers for years as a co-commentator on broadcasts of the Tour de France.

He expects a lively race at Eschborn – Frankfurt. With the professionals Colbrelli, Groenewegen, Philipsen, Matthews and also the former Frankfurt winners Ackermann, Kristoff and Degenkolb, some of the fastest professionals are at the start. "But among the many strong classic specialists there are many who will feel the need to make the race fast and difficult," says Wegmann. Because the climbs add up to over 3200 meters in altitude, there is ample opportunity for this. But there is also plenty of time for the sprinters on their way to Frankfurt to fill any gaps.