In one sense it’s quite poetic that Marcus Burghardt’s only win in the last six years has come via a team time trial. When he first broke through the German was earmarked for success and he won Gent-Wevelgem in 2007. A stage win in HTC’s incredible 2008 Tour de France followed, along with two stages in the Tour de Suisse in 2010.
Since then the 32-year-old has forged a career as a super domestique. Cadel Evans, Gilbert, van Garderen and now Richie Porte have all benefited from the rider’s sacrifices.
On stage 4 of the Criterium du Dauphine, Burghardt did what he did best, lining out the bunch constantly in order to keep the pace high and protect his leader from danger. The efforts killed the chances of local hero – and who may well have been the rider our rider of the day under normal circumstances - Maxime Bouet who had been part of the break and almost held out for the win but that’s cycling.
Porte says: My teammate Marcus Burghardt’s ripped it apart in the last 20 kilometres. He’s such a strong guy and riders like him are so underrated and just such good bike riders. You don’t always see that from the television perspective but he’s my rider of the day.
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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
