A three-time winner of the German National Road Race Championships (a record shared with six other riders), Greipel also prevailed in the classic Paris–Bourges and the 2015 Vattenfall Cyclassics, and won the overall classification of the Tour Down Under in Australia, in 2008 and 2010.

[6] He rode for TEAG Team Köstritzer at under-23 level between 2002 and 2004, winning the Grand Prix de Waregem in 2003,[7] and stages of the Thüringen Rundfahrt der U23 in both 2003 and 2004.

[6] Before the end of the season, Greipel took fourth-place finishes at the Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen and the Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt.

[16] Having remained with the T-Mobile Team into 2007, Greipel's only victories of the season came at the Sachsen Tour in the summer, winning the opening two stages of the race.

Before the end of the season, Greipel took three further victories in bunch sprints – winning the Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt,[26] the Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen,[27] and the Münsterland Giro.

[31][32] Greipel then won three stages and the points classification at the Bayern Rundfahrt,[26][33] before consecutive one-day victories in early June at the Neuseen Classics and the Philadelphia International Championship.

[49][50] Greipel won the Trofeo Magaluf–Palmanova,[51] held as part of the Vuelta a Mallorca one-day races, before winning a stage and the points classification at the Volta ao Algarve.

[86] On stage 4, Greipel avoided a crash with around 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) remaining – which took down other riders including Cavendish – and won the sprint in Rouen by beating Alessandro Petacchi and Tom Veelers.

He then placed second to Arnaud Démare in August's Vattenfall Cyclassics, the only UCI World Tour event disputed in Germany.

At the end of the month, Greipel won the German National Road Race Championships for the first time in his career ahead of Gerald Ciolek and John Degenkolb in a sprint, having been part of an eighteen-rider leading group on a rainy day in Wangen im Allgäu.

[107] Prior to the end of the season, Greipel won the fourth stage of the Eneco Tour and the Brussels Cycling Classic one-day race,[108][109] while also finishing as runner-up in the Vattenfall Cyclassics (to Degenkolb) and the Grand Prix de Fourmies (to Nacer Bouhanni).

[122] Following the Tour de France, Greipel took three one-day victories before the end of the season – winning the Brussels Cycling Classic for the second year in a row,[123] the Grote Prijs Jef Scherens,[124] and the Münsterland Giro.

[126] Having finished second to Matteo Pelucchi at the Trofeo Playa de Palma–Palma, held as part of the Vuelta a Mallorca one-day races, Greipel won stages at both the Volta ao Algarve and Paris–Nice,[127][128] dedicating the latter victory to his mother, who he said was "having a very hard time at the moment".

[128] In April, he was denied his third victory of the season at the Three Days of De Panne, losing out to Alexander Kristoff by 5 millimetres (0.20 inches) in the bunch sprint on stage 3a.

[129] His next win came on the fourth stage of the Tour of Turkey, in a sprint of a reduced group, after some of his main rivals were dropped on a climb close to the finish.

[144] After a third-place finish at the Scheldeprijs,[145] Greipel's next victory came at the Presidential Tour of Turkey in April,[146] winning the third stage of his final warm-up race before the Giro d'Italia.

[149] Following the Giro d'Italia, Greipel won a stage of the Tour de Luxembourg,[150] and finished second to Dylan Groenewegen at the centenary edition of the Rund um Köln.

[151] At the end of June, Greipel won a record-equalling third German National Road Race Championships title, beating Max Walscheid and Marcel Kittel in a bunch sprint in Erfurt.

[153] Greipel won the opening stage of September's Tour of Britain, taking a sprint victory in Castle Douglas,[154] before ceding the race lead the following day.

[159] Greipel took victory in his first start of the 2017 season, winning the Trofeo Porreres, Felanitx, Ses Salines, Campos event held as part of the Vuelta a Mallorca one-day races.

[167] Thereafter, Greipel did not win another race until the inaugural Omloop Eurometropool at the end of September,[168] which meant that Greipel's streak of twelve consecutive Grand Tour starts with at least one stage victory came to an end at the Tour de France,[169] his best result being a second-place finish to Dylan Groenewegen on the Champs-Élysées as he sought a third consecutive stage win in Paris.

[175] Following his withdrawal, he accused Arnaud Démare of holding onto team cars in order to make a stage time limit, but later apologised.

[178][179] This would ultimately turn out to be his only victory of the 2019 season, and his only other podium result was a second-place finish at the Grote Prijs Stad Zottegem, behind winner Piotr Havik.

[180] In October 2019 Greipel and Arkéa–Samsic announced that they had agreed to end their contract a year early, making his final appearance for the team at the Münsterland Giro.

[181] Greipel also revealed that his competitiveness was affected in the first half of the season by a bacterial disease which he suffered from for several months, recovering a fortnight before the Tour de France.

[188] In July, ahead of the penultimate stage of the Tour de France, Greipel announced that he would retire from competition, earlier than planned, at the end of the 2021 season.

[194] In April 2023, Greipel became the national road coach for the German Cycling Federation, replacing Jens Zemke in the role.