André Greipel

André Greipel
	André Greipel (2018)
To person
Nickname	gorilla
Date of birth	July 16, 1982
nation	Germany
discipline	Street
Driver type	sprinter
To the team
Current team	Israel start-up nation
function	driver
Societies)
until 2001 ; 2001	Police SV Rostock ; Jan Ullrich junior team
Team (s)
2002–2004 ; 2005 ; 2006–2010 ; 2011 ; 2012–2018 ; 2019 ; 2020	TEAG Team Köstritzer ; Wiesenhof ; Team T-Mobile / Columbia-HTC ; Omega Pharma-Lotto ; Lotto ; Team Arkéa-Samsic ; Israel Start-Up Nation
Most important successes
	Overall ranking Tour Down Under 2008 , 2010; 11 stages Tour de France; 7 stages Giro d'Italia; 4 stages Vuelta a España; Points ranking Vuelta a España 2009 World Championship - Road Race 2011 German Road Champion 2013 , 2014 , 2016 Vattenfall Cyclassics 2015; ; ;
	Last updated: January 3, 2019

André Greipel (born July 16, 1982 in Rostock ) is a German racing cyclist . He is one of the best street sprinters of his generation.

Career

In TEAG team Köstritzer André Greipel was one of the most successful racing drivers. After two German championship titles in the junior area, he presented himself particularly on tours. At the U23 tour of Thuringia , he was the winner of the sprint classification in 2002, as well as the GP Tell .

In 2003 Greipel won the U23 version of Rund um Köln , was stage winner of the Tour of Thuringia and the Tour de Berlin and won the U23 World Cup race in Waregem . In 2004 the Rostock won four stages in international tours. In 2005 he celebrated a stage win at the Tour of Denmark .

In 2006 he switched to the T-Mobile team , with whom he achieved two stage successes in the Rhineland-Palatinate Tour .

He celebrated his greatest international success to date at the Vuelta a España 2006 , where he only had to admit defeat to the Norwegian Thor Hushovd in the sprint of the 6th stage . At the Tour Down Under 2008 he won four stages and the first criterion for the tour . He thus secured victory in the overall standings. Subsequently, he was the first German leader in the individual classification of the UCI ProTour . He was able to defend the leader's jersey until the Amstel Gold Race in April. In the final ranking, he finished fifth just behind Roman Kreuziger .

Greipel won the 4th stage of the Vuelta a España in 2009 after all but the first seven riders had been stopped in a mass crash. After the rest day, Greipel also won the 5th stage when he prevailed in the mass sprint. With the stage win, Greipel also secured the overall lead. On September 15, he also won the 16th stage of the Vuelta and won the points classification.

In 2010 Greipel was able to win the overall ranking of the Tour Down Under as well as three stages. In February he celebrated stage wins in smaller races. In April he won five stages and scored the points on the Tour of Turkey . In May he won the 18th stage of the Giro d'Italia in the sprint. In August of the same year he was victorious in two stages each of the Tour de Pologne and the Eneco Tour . In the 2010 season he achieved a total of 21 wins this season.

Since there was strong competition from Mark Cavendish in the HTC-Columbia team and André Greipel was not nominated for the Tour de France 2010 , André Greipel switched to Omega Pharma-Lotto (which later became part of the Lotto Soudal team) for the 2011 season , where he did Top of the sprinters formed. In 2011 Greipel therefore took part in the Tour de France for the first time. On July 12, 2011, he won the 10th stage before Mark Cavendish, whom he beat in the finish sprint. He belongs to the group of racing cyclists who were able to achieve stage victories in all three Grand Tours . In the road race of the 2011 road world championship , Greipel won the bronze medal in a sprint decision on September 25th.

In the 2012 Tour de France won Greipel three stages. In 2013 he was able to decide a stage for himself. He also became German road champion for the first time and won the one-day race Brussels Cycling Classic . In 2014 he defended his title as German champion, won the Brussels Cycling Classic again and won a stage in the Tour de France . In 2015 he won a stage of the Giro d'Italia and four stages of the Tour de France , including the final stage on the Champs-Élysées in Paris . In August 2015, he won the Vattenfall Cyclassics in a mass sprint and thus his first World Tour single-day race. At the 2016 Tour de France , he won the last stage in Paris.

In 2018 Greipel crashed at the spring classic Milan – Sanremo , broke his collarbone and was subsequently unable to start other spring races. In his first race after this fall, the 4 Jours de Dunkerque , he won the second stage in the sprint. This victory was the 150th of his career. He achieved a second stage win as a soloist on the fifth section, after shaking off the remains of a 17-strong leading group on the final ascent of Mont Cassel .

After the lottery team did not extend Greipel's contract beyond 2018, he switched to Team Arkéa-Samsic for the 2019 season , where he only managed one victory due to a lack of support. Greipel terminated his contract with the team by mutual agreement and joined Israel Start-Up Nation in 2020 . In February 2020, he fell while training and suffered a broken shoulder.

Private

André Greipel is married and has two daughters. He has successfully completed his training as an office clerk . In October 2011 he was honored as "Sportsman of the Year" in his home town of Hürth near Cologne . Greipel lived in the meantime in the Swiss old age .