Anton Palzer on his ski mountaineering to cycling switch: "I want to tell my story"
The 30-year-old German, who only became a cyclist in 2021 after a successful ski mountaineering career, tells Olympics.com about his decision to switch sports and why he doesn't agree with comparisons to teammate Primoz Roglic, an ex-ski jumper.
"I go my own path, it's my own way. I'm telling the story of Anton."
As Anton Palzer sits down for this interview with Olympics.com before the start of the 2024 season, it's hard to fathom just how far the "story of Anton" has already come in three seasons.
See, the German wasn't always a road cyclist. In fact, he came to professional cycling very late, being aged 28 in April 2021 when he took part in his first race, the Tour of the Alps. Before that, he was a highly successful ski mountaineering athlete.
And yet, in his three full seasons as a cyclist – and one for a UCI World Tour team, at that – he has already competed in two Grand Tours as well as finished in the general classification top 10 of the Tour of Türkiye.
That has drawn some comparisons to his new Bora-Hansgrohe teammate Primoz Roglic, who was a world junior champion in ski jumping before making his own impressive transition into cycling.
It's a comparison Palzer, who turns 31 in March, can see, but doesn't agree with.
"For sure there are some explanations about the same way, maybe with Primoz Roglic, with Michael Woods, a few amazing cyclists who entered the sport after a different career, I guess a bit older.
"But I want to tell my story. It's my journey."
Why Anton Palzer switched sports at 28
By anyone's standards, Palzer, nicknamed 'Doni', was a top skimo athlete. "I won 15 World Cup races, I won six World Championships medals, I was on the overall World Cup podium," he shares.
But that repetition got Palzer down. "For me, it was a bit like 'The Truman Show' every year, the same. And first of all, I thought, okay, I do my own projects. I go to the big mountains of this world and set record times like on Mont Blanc or the Matterhorn in Swiss or the Himalayas, the real big mountains and stuff like this.
"Cycling was never on the plate. It was maybe a dream, but I knew, okay, I'm already 28 years old, there would be no chance to enter the highest level of cycling."
How wrong he was. At Bora-Hansgrohe, with a few contacts in the right places, Palzer was invited to do a few tests. As a skimo racer, he said, "cycling was always part of my training, but [not] 5000 to 6000km per season. Most of the time I was on road skis and spent a lot of time running; cycling was just a small part of my preparation for winter."
But he did enough to impress Bora boss Ralph Denk, who put an offer on the table. After mulling it over for a couple of months, Palzer signed.
"I grew up in a small mountain village 1100m above sea level in a small ski resort," Palzer explains of his love for the outdoors, which he now gets to experience in a different way.
"Climbing, skiing, hiking was always part of my daily business when I was a kid. My dad is an Alpine guide. It was always like an adventure to go to the mountains with him and to discover the mountains and to have a good time outside.
"The past years, I did it on skis and by foot, and now I try to do it as fast as possible with the bike. And the good thing is when I'm done with cycling, the mountains will be still there. So I can go back to skiing, I can go back to climbing, I can go back to hiking."
Steep learning curve in cycling
Despite the similarities – and his cycling training background for skimo – the transition was difficult and the learning curve was steep for Palzer, who even considered quitting.
"The first two years were pretty tough for me, and actually I was not sure if I would continue," he admits.
"Because it was 'Okay, now you are in the bunch in the world of cycling, do this.' And it was super hard for me because I never did a race before. Tour of the Alps in '21 was my first bike race, and if you have never ridden in a bunch of cyclists, it's really tough."
However, the German did enough in his debut season to earn a selection for Bora's Vuelta a España 2021 squad late that summer for his Grand Tour debut – and he made it to the finish line in Santiago de Compostela, placing 102nd.
After a 2022 which saw him gain more experience on tour, in 2023 Palzer took part in his second Grand Tour, the Giro d'Italia, before his 10th-place GC finish in the Tour of Türkiye in October.
"Actually, I'm super proud of myself, because I continued," he reflects of his difficult start in cycling. "I said to myself: 'Okay, you have to give it a try, it's not possible to do it in one year or in two years.'
"I think now, the process is pretty good, especially last year there was some, some really, really good races from myself."
Reflections from Anton Palzer: "Sometimes you have to go out of your comfort zone"
As Palzer prepares for his fourth season as a professional cyclist, he reflects on the remarkable turn of events that have changed his life since 2021 – especially knowing now that he could have become an Olympian in 2026, when skimo will be an additional sport at the Milano Cortina Winter Games.
"I love cycling, and if I have the chance to continue as a cyclist, I will continue on that. I don't think about the Olympics and ski mountaineering.
"I would say when you get a chance at 28 to join about a World Tour team, one of the best teams in the world, it's for sure super special," the German acknowledges.
"I think I'm the first one at this age and with really no experience. For me, [skimo] was like a super comfortable living. I had super good sponsors, I was in the military sport group in Germany, ski mountaineering became Olympic sport in 2026, so for me it would be like a good life.
"But I was not happy anymore with my life. And for me, the most important thing is to be happy.
"I think you sometimes you have to go out of your comfort zone to try something new, so that you will be happy again."
