Reichenbach retires from cycling 6 years after Dumoulin called him a "grandmother" while descending

Professional cyclists retire every year, which is no different in 2024. IDLProCycling.com has an annual habit of delving into the careers of some of them, and in this episode, the focus is on Sébastien Reichenbach. The Swiss rider has been inextricably linked to Tom Dumoulin since 2018.

Reichenbach was born on May 28, 1989, in Martigny, where the World Cycling Championships were supposed to be hosted in 2020. In that coronavirus year, however, Switzerland was not allowed to host big events, forcing the city to withdraw. A World Championship would no longer be organized there because Zurich was chosen in 2024.

Nevertheless, in this part of Switzerland - not far from France - you can enjoy cycling, especially climbing. So it is unsurprising that the young Reichenbach appeared to have a talent for riding uphill, as he showed in his U23 years on behalf of Atlas Personal - BMC. Eventually, he would turn pro full-time in 2013 for IAM Cycling.

That ambitious Swiss team debuted that year, and Reichenbach more than contributed to a successful rookie year. The slender climber finished 16th in the Tour of Switzerland, fourth in the Tour de l'Ain, eighth in the Tour of Britain, and even won the Trofeo Mateotti. A year later, he was allowed to compete in the Tour de France for the first time.

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Reichenbach persevered in WorldTour

After three years with IAM Cycling, he transferred within the WorldTour to Groupama-FDJ, where he was brought in as a climbing domestique for the French raising star Thibaut Pinot. Despite this, Reichenbach accumulated excellent results in his debut year for Marc Madiot's team, including fourth place in Tirreno-Adriatico, 13th place in the Tour of the Basque Country, and 11th place in the Tour of Romandie. Pinot disappeared in disappointment in that year's Tour, and Reichenbach finished 14th.

Along with his leader, the Swiss domestique focused on the Giro in 2017. Pinot had a stellar spring but was eliminated from the podium on the final day by Tom Dumoulin after three weeks of competing. Reichenbach did deliver good work but otherwise had a lousy season. That came to an end with a crash resulting in elbow and pelvis fractures in Tre Valli Varesine, for which he blamed Gianni Moscon.

The Italian had previously called Reichenbach's teammate Kévin Reza a racist, which Reichenbach had tweeted something about at the time. For that reason, Moscon - according to Reichenbach- looked for him during Tre Valli Varesine and pushed him, causing Reichenbach to crash heavily. The UCI investigated the matter but ultimately did not punish Moscon. Reichenbach's charges were thus dismissed.

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"Old grandma" statement Dumoulin sticks to Reichenbach forever

Reichenbach returned to the peloton in late February, after which he could get himself in shape for another Giro alongside Pinot. The Swiss again provided the necessary uphill work but tried to do his bit downhill. In the legendary stage over the Finestre, Chris Froome attacked and left his opponents behind while they decided to wait for one of their few remaining domestiques: Reichenbach.

Reichenbach then assisted Dumoulin and co, but Dumoulin was not pleased with Reichenbach's descent skills afterward. ''Twice in the descents, I chose to wait for Reichenbach because he still wanted to ride with me. In hindsight, that was a bad choice because I rode downhill as fast as Froome. On the other hand, Reichenbach descends like an old grandma, and I had to wait for that every time. Maybe I shouldn't have done that, but then I would have had to do everything alone," he commented.

Of course, Reichenbach, who saw Pinot drop out of the GC in the final week, was also later confronted with those statements. ''I think that was meant more as a joke. I understand what he meant, but deep down, he was glad I was there to help him. It was mentally a tough step to wait,'' responded the Swiss, who suffered another setback in the summer of that year after a crash with a collarbone and scapula fracture.

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Reichenbach fails to achieve top results in final years of career

In the following year, the 2019 Tour was finally the Tour of Pinot, who won on the Tourmalet and competed for the GC for a long time. In the end, however, a problem with a tendon ensured that the Pinot-Tour de France story (and thus that of Reichenbach) would remain unsuccessful. The Swiss rider did achieve his second and last professional victory that season: he became national champion.

In the following years, Reichenbach did not belong to Pinot's inner circle anymore, even though he still achieved good results in several WorldTour races. After seven years, his contract with Groupama-FDJ ended in 2022, as a new Swiss adventure awaited him with Tudor's move to become a pro team.

However, the selfless Reichenbach—who sees the 2017 and 2018 Giro races with Pinot as the highlight of his career—was among the riders overtaken by a stronger generation in the last two years. Therefore, he decided to end his career in this year's Tour of Lombardy, but it was not destined to be that way.

Just before the Tour of Lombardy, he broke his collarbone, which meant the Trofeo Matteoti was his last race. No shame either, because that is precisely the race where he scored his first professional victory. ''And I am glad I was still part of Tudor because this team is exactly what Switzerland needed,'' said the rider at his farewell.

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