After six years abroad, Stefan Schumacher returned to his home country forthe 2016 season and joined the Stuttgart-based Christina Jewelry team. It was a change which paid off for the German, especially in the first half of the season.

Although he only took part in a few major races, Schumacher did well in the smaller events. After finishing ninth at the GP Etruschi (1.1), the 35-year-old was able to secure the overall victory at the Morocco Tour (2.2) thanks to three third places in stages. The Tour d’Azerbaijan (2.1) where he finished in the top five in three stages, went well with a ninth place in the overall classification.

"I was very motivated at the start of the season and was already quite good in the the first one-day races in Italy. And I could celebrate a very nice overall victory in Morocco,” Schumacher said in an interview with radsport-news.com.

After the Azerbaijan tour in mid-May, things got worse for health reasons. "I had to fight against unusually bad back pain, which I could not handle with physiotherapy. With an MRT scan, they found a herniated disc that touched the nerve," explained Schumacher who was still able to stick to his racing program until Nationals where he was seventh in the TT.

"Due to the nerve, I was not able to put any real pressure on the pedals and then I had to undergo laser surgery in the beginning of July," said Schumacher who was hardly set back and mde his comeback at the end of the month at the Volta a Portugal.

On the Iberian Peninsula, it went well for the Christina Jewelry captain. After four stages, Schumacher was in the top ten. However, he lost a lot of time due to a heavy crash on stage 5 and after that he was unable make an impact apart from a seventh place in the individual time trial.

The race in Portugal was also Schumacher's last of the year as his team barely raced in the autumn. In spite of all setbacks in the second half of the season, Schumacher is looking back positively at his time with Christina Jewelry which is over after only one year.

"I had some really good guys around me and I really enjoyed working with them and sharing my experience," said Schumacher who is looking for a new team for 2017. "It was worth a try, it obviously did not work out in the way I wanted it to be," said Schumacher about the main sponsor which will withdraw at the end of the year.

At first, Schumacher had thought of ending his long and rich career. "I was not really looking for a team, but surprisingly a very interesting offer arrived so I can continue my career. I still want to do it all again,” he said, thus indicating that he will still be in the peloton in 2017.