Jannik Steimle makes his comeback this Sunday at GP de Fourmies following a one-month absence caused by a broken collarbone, and is determined to finish off the year in style.
“I’m feeling good, mentally it hasn’t been easy. I crashed last year in Nokere Koerse and this year in the Vuelta a Burgos again. But it’s part of our job and in the end I’m quite confident about the hard work I’ve done the past weeks. I’m looking forward to pinning on a number again and hopefully showing my form. Normally I don’t finish the season without a victory, so I still have to do something.”
“I think the good thing is that I’m still young and that helped me recover quite fast from my crash and broken collarbone. In Burgos I went down at more than 70km/h, so at the end I was lucky I got out of it with a broken collarbone and not with something more. This thought makes it a bit easier to handle the setback. I watched the races of my teammates the past weeks and that also helped me to keep my motivation high.”
Keeping the head up
“I also went to the last stage of the Deutschland Tour, as it ended in my home town, Stuttgart. It was a pity I couldn’t ride myself. In the morning I helped the race to promote the amateur version, as it’s quite big for cycling in Germany. I also supported my teammates in the afternoon, of course it was nice to see them even though it wasn’t easy not being in the bunch with them, but it motivated me to go for it the next day on training.”
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“I could restart training quite fast. After my surgery I went on the bike already after one week and it was nice to do it so quickly. The good thing was that on the moment of my crash I was reaching my top shape so the setback wasn’t that big. The first two weeks I still had pain, which made it a bit difficult to go fast, but then it was better. I trained so much for the last races because I want to start the off-season with a good feeling. I want to show myself, also towards next year.”
“I think this season I’ve become calmer, I learned a lot from the sports directors and my teammates. I had some setbacks, but I made a step forward. I still want to grow also in the time trials, I had a big goal of becoming German Champion but unfortunately I didn’t take the title for only fifteen seconds. I also learned to focus on the big goals and train with the same mindset. I’m really looking forward to next year, hopefully getting the same chances again and taking another step in my development.”
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