With his surprising victory at the German Championships in Bensheim and third place on a difficult Tour de France stage, neo-professional Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Argon 18) has exceeded all expectations in 2016. "My season has been absolutely fantastic,” he told radsport-news.com.

The successes of the young German did not come out of nowhere. In hard stage races in the first half of the season, Buchmann who mostly started as a domestique, indicated his potential several times.  Buchmann was 29th in the Volta ao Algarve, 18th in the Critérium International and 20th in the Giro del Trentino.

With these results, Buchmann put himself in contention for a spot on the Tour de France team which he finally secured by riding to a solid 32nd place at the Critérium du Dauphiné.

However, Buchmann made all these results look bleak at the German Championships in Bensheim when he surprised the rivals in the finale of the road race and won the title and the biggest success of his career at just 23 years of age.

In the German champion’s jersey, he showed his class at the Tour de France where he rode to third behind Rafal Majka and Dan Martin from a star-studded breakaway on stage 11.

In the second half of the year, Buchmann rode the Italian autumn classics with 22nd in Milan-Turin as the best result. But even after Il Lombardia the season was still not over for the climber as Buchmann was part of the Bora team at the inaugural Abu Dhabi Tour where he did well by finishing 17th. After 59 days of racing, the neo-pro finally ended his season.

In his second pro season Buchmann will build on the successes of 2015 "I want to develop myself as a stage racer and make another step forward,” Buchmann announced.