Martin Reimer (Skil-Shimano)(Image credit: Bert Geerts/dcp-bertgeerts@xs4all.nl)
German Champion Martin Reimer (Cervelo TestTeam)(Image credit: www.allaboutcycling.de)
Winning the 2009 German national road title will turn out to be Martin Reimer's only professional win. The Skil-Shimano rider is ending his career at the age of 24.
Reimer was in his first year with Cervelo when he surprisingly won the German title. That same year he finished third overall in the Tour of Britain, fourth in the Giro del Mendrisiotto and ninth in Paris-Tours.
He was unable to bring in any more top results with Garmin-Cervelo in 2010, and for this season went to the Professional Continental ranked Skil-Shimano. 2011 saw even fewer headline performances, and resulted in his contract not being renewed.
Reimer was very disappointed at how Skil dealt with him, who claimed that his “stagnating development” was the grounds for no further contract. “Where should I have brought in the results?” Reimer said on Radsport-News.com. A sprinter himself, he would gladly have helped set up sprints for top star Marcel Kittel, but those would also have been the races in which he himself could have done well.
“Plus in the last half of the season I was only used in mountain races," he said. "At the Tour of Burgos, one week before the Vuelta, I really wouldn't have any chance against someone like Joaquin Rodriguez in an uphill sprint.”
Looking to his possible cycling future, he did not want to ride below the ProContinental level. He had offers from Continental teams, and “I could have tred to come back to the top through such small teams, but that sort of thing so rarely works out.”
He takes blame for part of the problems with the Dutch team. He was brought in as captain for the Classics, a role for which he says he “had no experience.” After an illness threw him back the beginning of the season, “I built a wall around myself and didn't let anyone near me, in order to play the role of captain. Both sides quickly noticed that this didn't work.”
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Reimer also criticised an unnamed sports director, who demanded he give his opinion, but then criticised that opinion. The DS never changed his mind after forming a bad first impression, Reimer said, and told him that if he was lucky he “might win a small race, but nothing more.”
He is not leaving with a bad opinion of pro cycling though. “I have learned so much for life, have matured personally and have got to know many great people,” he said. “I know I have the talent, but in the current situation leaving cycling is simply the right decision.”
