Cycling
Paul Fietzke isn't here just to make up the numbers and has stood on the podium at some of the world's biggest junior races, but the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe Rookies rider only has eyes for the top.
Since his first competitive race less than a decade ago, the 19-year-old talent has gone from strength-to-strength, securing impressive results at home and abroad in some of the world's biggest junior races. But he sees his progression to the Under-23 outfit Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe Rookies for 2025 as his stand-out achievement to date. "Personally, my biggest success was making it into this team, racing for the U19 team for two years and now moving up to the U23 team," he says.
That's in part because it shows he's one step closer to achieving his dream. "My goal is to achieve more and win races, not just participate but be at the front. That's what I'm working towards, giving 100 percent, to stay focused and become not only a professional, but a successful one. There's still a long road ahead."
Given his journey so far, it's a dream you can see coming true.
01
The chance encounter with cycling
Paul Fietzke doesn't come from cycling stock. None of his family members were professional cyclists or knew anything about the sport. In fact, they didn't even ride bikes. In his early life, Fietzke was the same, but when he moved to the small east German town of Senftenberg after his parents separated, he had a chance encounter with a cycling club that would change the course of his life.
"A classmate asked me if I wanted to join him after school at a sports club," he explains. "It was winter, so it was just basic athletics training. I didn't even know at the time that it was a cycling club, I thought it was just an athletics club. Eventually, in the summer we started riding racing bikes, which was new for me. But I enjoyed it. We'd ride around the lake twice a week after school. This was in Senftenberg, when I was six-to-10-years-old. At that age, it was just a hobby I did occasionally after school. The fun part was spending time with friends, both on and off the bike."
He entered his first race when he was about 10 or 11 and success followed soon after, but he didn’t get carried away with his obvious talent. “There wasn’t a specific moment where I decided I wanted to become a professional cyclist. It just evolved.”
Fietzke's breakthrough came at the Kids' Tour – an internationally regarded youth competition held in Berlin – where he won the U13 category. "When I started winning, I remember that as a huge highlight for me. Those were the moments when I thought, 'Maybe I have the talent to go further in this sport'."
02
Joining the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe Rookies
Fietzke wasn't alone in thinking he had the raw attributes to go further in the sport. Dr Christian Schrot, the then-Head of Scouting and Development for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe reached out to Fietzke while he was racing with the Brandenburg state association.
"It wasn't immediately about joining the team; it was part of their scouting process," he says. "There were many conversations and performance tests, and, eventually, I made it into the team."
Fietzke joined Team grenke-Auto Eder – Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe's Under-19 development team – from the 2023 season and repaid the team’s faith instantly. In his first race, he won the general classification of the three-stage Internationale Cottbuser Junioren Etappenfahrt and his year also included wins in the German national championships' junior category and second place at the World Championships in Glasgow – a result he remembers with a ‘love-hate feeling’. "On the one hand, I was upset that I didn't win because I made a mistake, but on the other hand, I was happy to finish second. Being on the podium at a World Championship is rare. Out of the whole world in my age group, I was one of the top three. That's my greatest achievement so far."
His second season in the Junior Brotherhood was also littered with wins and podium finishes – a highlight his third position in the European Championships junior individual time trial – and saw Fietzke sign for the Under-23 team Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe Rookies for the next two years.
03
Focusing on the here and now
Fietzke's aims for 2025 include being near the front at the national championships and possibly the World Championships. "Results-wise, I'd like to be in contention for victories during the final stretch of [U23] races. Whether I win or not depends on the future, but my goal is to be among the best and influence the outcome of races."
But results aren't just based on where he finishes. "Good results mean improving physically and mentally as a person," he says, pointing to his participation in January's Mallorca Challenge one-day race, where he finished 67th, as a good example. "The goal was just to learn – getting a sense of what it's like to ride with the pros. It’s about gaining experience."
Many have the talent to make it to the top, but only those who are mentally strong enough to handle the pressure and training regimen succeed
While his ultimate ambition is to win the Tour de France, he's realistic that he doesn't have the physical attributes required to claim cycling's biggest prize yet. "You need exceptional performance ability that's a combination of natural talent and further development, extreme discipline to push yourself to the limit and incredible mental strength. I think I only have two out of the three traits. I think I lack the physical prerequisites for the Tour de France. I'm a different type of rider, which isn't a bad thing. I can still win races, but they're not as mountainous or with long climbs.
"I need to focus on races that suit me better based on my physical capabilities. I believe it's better to win races than to merely compete for 10th or 15th place in a race. Maybe in the next two or three years, I'll make an unexpected leap and end up competing in a Grand Tour. That's in the future and it's unpredictable. That's why I try to live in the here and now and focus on excelling in races that suit my strengths."
04
The mental resilience is ready
One attribute Fietzke believes he does have – and is a necessity to compete at the top – is mental resilience. "You ride a bike against many other people and hurt yourself while doing it. You have to enjoy hurting yourself, because it’s demanding to ride for many hours, both physically and mentally. That's something often underestimated in cycling – the mental aspect plays a huge role.
"Many have the talent to make it to the top, but only those who are mentally strong enough to handle the pressure and training regimen succeed. I'm not always motivated to ride every day. There are days when I don’t feel like it, which is perfectly normal, but you still have to find the drive to push through and make the best of it."