ROGER KLUGE - STILL WINNING AT 40

6 February 2026: When Roger Kluge crossed the line to win the men’s Madison at the 2026 European Championships with Moritz Augenstein, the moment landed with extra weight. It came on Kluge’s 40th birthday. Not a farewell lap. Not a ceremonial ride. A full-blooded championship win at the sharp end of elite European track racing.

That single fact tells you almost everything about Kluge’s career.

Not a Peak, Just an Early Chapter

For many riders, a silver medal at the Olympic Games would be the summit. Kluge’s came in the men’s points race at the Beijing Olympics. At the time, it looked like the arrival of a major talent: tactically sharp, relentlessly efficient, and already unusually calm under pressure.

What no one could have predicted is that this result would end up being closer to the beginning than the peak.

Nearly two decades later, Kluge is still collecting medals, still dictating races, and still proving decisive in the most technically demanding event on the track calendar.

The Ultimate Madison Rider

If there is a discipline built for longevity, it is the Madison - but only for riders with exceptional race intelligence. Kluge’s greatest strength has never been explosive brilliance alone. It is his ability to read the race three moves ahead, to know exactly when to commit and when to wait.

Across World Championships, European Championships, Six Days and Olympic Games, Kluge has built a reputation as the rider everyone watches and no one wants to misjudge. He does not waste energy. He does not panic. And when the decisive moment arrives, he is almost always positioned exactly where he needs to be.

Winning the European title in 2026 with Augenstein was not a nostalgic victory. It was tactically ruthless, physically demanding, and achieved against riders half his age who grew up watching him race.

Longevity at the Very Top

Track cycling is unforgiving. The margins are brutal, the speeds relentless, and the calendar relentless. Staying competitive into your late thirties is rare. Winning major championships at 40 is almost unheard of.

Kluge’s longevity is a masterclass in adaptation:

evolving from points race specialist to Madison lynchpin

refining efficiency rather than chasing raw power

pairing experience with younger teammates to devastating effect

In an era increasingly obsessed with watts, aerodynamics and youth pipelines, Kluge is proof that race craft, composure and experience still win medals.

A Career Still Being Written

The most remarkable thing about Roger Kluge’s career is not that he is still racing. It is that he is still winning at the highest level.

Beijing 2008 was not the peak. It was simply an early milestone in one of track cycling’s most enduring elite careers. Nearly 20 years on, standing on the top step of a European podium on his 40th birthday, Kluge has redefined what longevity in track cycling looks like.

Kluge’s longevity places him in truly rare company. The obvious comparisons are with Argentina's Juan Curuchet, who won the Olympic Madison in Beijing at 43 years old, and Joan Llaneras, who claimed the Olympic points race title in the same Games at the age of 39.

hat points race podium in 2008 is now rich with perspective: Llaneras on the top step, already an established legend of endurance and race craft, and a 22-year-old Roger Kluge taking silver, seemingly at the beginning of his journey.

Nearly two decades later, that young rider now stands alongside them rather than behind them. Winning a European Madison title on his 40th birthday, Kluge completes the arc from prodigy to veteran to enduring great, joining Curuchet and Llaneras as proof that true mastery of track racing does not fade with age, it deepens.

This was not a sentimental ending. It was another chapter. And knowing Roger Kluge, probably not the last.