Back then, says Ralph Denk, “he came, saw and conquered”.
Turned pro in 2017, the blonde powerhouse was already among the elite of his field on the road, the sprint, in 2019.
As a Giro greenhorn, he also made an international name for himself with two stage victories and winning the sprint jersey (as the first German ever) in the Tour of Italy.
With a mixture of power and light-heartedness, speed and instinct.
Someone seemed to have taken a course to continue the tradition of the successful German sprinter winners.
Of course also one day soon at the Tour de France, which outshines everything in this sport.
Denk, who enabled and supported the rise of the highly talented as head of the Bora-hansgrohe team, left no doubt that Pascal Ackermann would one day be striving for the merits in France.
This has not happened at Bora-hansgrohe in five years.
In 2021, the Palatinate was firmly scheduled for a place in the tour squad, but was booted out at short notice due to a previously weak half-year.
Ackermann shared his pain publicly, made it clear that he believed the promises and felt cheated of the chance he so longed for.
Well, at the beginning of the 2022 season, it means for Ackermann: He came, saw - but does he also win?
And especially where?
And on what terrain?
Ackermann has left Bora-hansgrohe and joined UAE Team Emirates.
A change in the top ranks of the WorldTour, but a real fresh start, almost an hour zero in his career at 28 years old.
Ackermann did not take part of his sprint train with him, as is usually the case when top sprinters change, i.e. his familiar and well-coordinated starters from umpteen races together.
In the Babylonian confusion of languages that prevails in this team, he has to create a new entourage that trusts and harmonizes in the extreme sprint situation - a time-consuming procedure.
Internally, Ackermann has to prove himself in the Italian-dominated team against sprinter competition from, for example, an alpha animal like Fernando Gaviria.
In addition, there is the complete lack of prospects of getting to the Tour of France in his new team within the two-year contract period.
Ultimately, none other than Tadej Pogacar drives for the Equipe UAE, whose third tour triumph in a row is the overarching project of the team, which has been enormously upgraded for this purpose.
There is of course no room for sprinters in the squad.
But why did Ackermann opt for a nest escape of this kind?
The “pain and pain” must be high, one oracles in the cycling scene.
Ackermann recently provided information in the ARD podcast "Tourfunk".
He said his decision to leave Bora-hansgrohe was made before the noise about the missed tour start.
It was about “a new attraction.
That's what makes it extremely exciting.
I've come to win races, but everyone in the team knows it's new for me."
Bora boss Denk says that they recently had a good and clarifying conversation during training camps in Mallorca.
Ackermann says that not being considered for the tour "was a hard blow for him on one hand.
On the other hand, it opened my eyes to the fact that I still have to work on myself to get back to where I used to be.” At Bora-hansgrohe, it had been made clear a while before that Ackermann, after his rapid ascent, was about to lose his last bite and Something had gone missing.
Now the talented and fast man from Kandel – a street is already named after him in his home country – can of course be trusted to catch up with the world's best.
His 36 victories so far (including at Eschborn-Frankfurt 2019 and the final stage of the Vuelta in 2020) are no coincidence.
In his last six months with his German team, he had six more one-day victories (at mostly smaller racing events).
For the current UAE tour - the first WorldTour race of the year and home race of his new team - he was nominated at short notice for Gaviria, who is suffering from corona.
In the first two sprint arrivals in the Emirates, he was tenth and third without a chance of winning.
This Thursday and Friday there are more opportunities on a flat track - as a sprinter.
It is worth adding, because Ackermann wants to undergo a transformation into a classic driver this spring.
It's a modern sprinter, that is, one that "gets over the mountains well," as the jargon puts it.
It just seems a bit half-baked when he is a sprinter in January and February, then as a debutant in the classics "wants to be among the front runners", as he says, and then switch back to his core competence in late summer at the three-week Vuelta a España Sprint.
“A huge dream” is taking part in the classics, says Ackermann.
"A brave step," thinks Denk, because this change of terrain during the five-year bora season "was never discussed."
It cannot be ruled out that at the end of the season Ackermann will say: He came, saw and searched.