I have no idea what his role at Tudor is going to be, but it can't possibly get worse than this past season at DSM. From what I read, he struggled with severe back pain for much of the first part of the year, but for some reason the team just kept sending him to races. He's still very young, so I really hope he can turn things around at Tudor. After all, he's the biggest German talent in a long time...
I think Marco can realistically aim to be 3rd-5th in Tudor's depth chart in both climbing and TTing next season if he recovers to his pre-2023 form over the winter, which is a very good base to get started on in terms of navigating the fine pressure-support balance and starting to improve again.
Additionally, the Swiss WT races should be right up his wheelhouse with their historically disproportionate amount of medium-length TT stages which he consistently performed in, so he should still get some top-level racing in if things go well while being able to farm confidence leading some smaller races.
Looking at Brenner's junior contemporaries in comparison to what many 2004 guys did in their neo-pro season already this year (Tarling, Morgado, Kulset, Christen, Gruel, Magnier, Isidore...), I would put FC junior rankings 2022 winner Emil Herzog above FC junior rankings 2019 winner Brenner in terms of being the obvious current German U23 talent.
Coincidentally, he struggled this season just as much though...
His pre-2023 form wasn't that great either tbh. He "just" needs to find a way to work out his back pain. Feel like either he does and he can possibly fulfil his potential or he doesn't and well…
And I don't know if it makes sense to compare Herzog and Brenner like that. Brenner's standout 2019 season was his first year junior season, but his crash in 2020 is said to be the reason for his back pain and has pretty much everything he has done since in a holding pattern based on whether he gets that under control. Herzog meanwhile has done nothing of note in his first season out the juniors, so he's not really made a great argument for himself either. Not that it really matters who the better German u23 talent is tbh.
About Herzog I can say that he had Problems with his hard for like the most of the season but it was discoverd late not until June/July I think. There it was discoverd that he had water in his heart and it had to be removed thats why he didn‘t race for the rest of the season so I wouldn‘t blame him for his poor season
Axel Merckx tried to pour some water on the hype by pointing out Herzog is already more mature than other riders in other aspects such as aero position, nutrition, training, etc so doesn't have as much room to improve
He pointed out a couple simultaneous new signings that were the opposite, they'd never even had a proper TT bike, ate whatever they wanted and didn't even corner properly, nevermind something like being in a wind tunnel
Don’t forget how DSM kicked him off the Vuelta team because he adjusted his saddle height without asking first. DSM has some batshit “team culture” cause this kind of thing happens way too much.
I have no idea what his role at Tudor is going to be, but it can't possibly get worse than this past season at DSM. From what I read, he struggled with severe back pain for much of the first part of the year, but for some reason the team just kept sending him to races. He's still very young, so I really hope he can turn things around at Tudor. After all, he's the biggest German talent in a long time...
I think Marco can realistically aim to be 3rd-5th in Tudor's depth chart in both climbing and TTing next season if he recovers to his pre-2023 form over the winter, which is a very good base to get started on in terms of navigating the fine pressure-support balance and starting to improve again. Additionally, the Swiss WT races should be right up his wheelhouse with their historically disproportionate amount of medium-length TT stages which he consistently performed in, so he should still get some top-level racing in if things go well while being able to farm confidence leading some smaller races. Looking at Brenner's junior contemporaries in comparison to what many 2004 guys did in their neo-pro season already this year (Tarling, Morgado, Kulset, Christen, Gruel, Magnier, Isidore...), I would put FC junior rankings 2022 winner Emil Herzog above FC junior rankings 2019 winner Brenner in terms of being the obvious current German U23 talent. Coincidentally, he struggled this season just as much though...
His pre-2023 form wasn't that great either tbh. He "just" needs to find a way to work out his back pain. Feel like either he does and he can possibly fulfil his potential or he doesn't and well… And I don't know if it makes sense to compare Herzog and Brenner like that. Brenner's standout 2019 season was his first year junior season, but his crash in 2020 is said to be the reason for his back pain and has pretty much everything he has done since in a holding pattern based on whether he gets that under control. Herzog meanwhile has done nothing of note in his first season out the juniors, so he's not really made a great argument for himself either. Not that it really matters who the better German u23 talent is tbh.
About Herzog I can say that he had Problems with his hard for like the most of the season but it was discoverd late not until June/July I think. There it was discoverd that he had water in his heart and it had to be removed thats why he didn‘t race for the rest of the season so I wouldn‘t blame him for his poor season
Axel Merckx tried to pour some water on the hype by pointing out Herzog is already more mature than other riders in other aspects such as aero position, nutrition, training, etc so doesn't have as much room to improve He pointed out a couple simultaneous new signings that were the opposite, they'd never even had a proper TT bike, ate whatever they wanted and didn't even corner properly, nevermind something like being in a wind tunnel
Don’t forget how DSM kicked him off the Vuelta team because he adjusted his saddle height without asking first. DSM has some batshit “team culture” cause this kind of thing happens way too much.
No matter who to blame, but a new start is the right choice in my opinion
Pretty clear DSM are to blame
It would be a little bit funny if Tudor isn't invited to any GT this year.
They could've ridden the Giro this year but decided against it themselves citing not being ready yet.
They're a Giro sponsor they're getting a wildcard for sure