Category: Interviews

Lefevere Maintains Mostly Positive Outlook After Another Near Miss at Gent-Wevelgem

With Stijn Vandenbergh and Niki Terpstra in a small lead group in the final 10 kilometers of Gent-Wevelgem, EQS seemed to have control of the race with a deadly 1-2 punch. But Luca Paolini launched a powerful attack with around 6 kilometers left in the stage, and not even the combined might of Vandenbergh, Terpstra, and the rest of the small lead group could reel him in. Terpstra ultimately crossed the line 2nd, Vandenbergh 4th. Just as had been the case for the Belgian super-squad in last month’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, EQS failed to turn an advantage into a victory.

Talking to VeloHuman after Gent-Wevelgem, Etixx-QuickStep CEO Patrick Lefevere did not see the form of his riders as a problem.

“I think the condition of the top riders is okay. I think maybe we’re the strongest riders in the bunch at the moment, if you look from Omloop Het Nieuwsblad until now, seeing the crash in the descent of the Poggio and Milan-San Remo, losing Stybar and Kwiatkowski, and then all the other races, we’re always on the podium,” Lefevere told VH. “Nieuwsblad 2nd, 3rd, 4th, winning Kuurne, the World Champion did a really great performance at Waregem, Harelbeke again, very strong, but every time, just somebody’s stronger.”

The team tactics were rather questionable at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, but here in Gent-Wevelgem, the insurmountable strength of Luca Paolini and a perfectly-timed attack by the Italian seemed to be the main obstacle to EQS success. The early abandonment of their Plan A, Mark Cavendish, and a steady stream of mechanicals all day did not help the situation. Lefevere seems to attribute the dearth of wins despite so many top placings to bad luck more than anything, and because of it, he is not as disappointed as he might otherwise be given the number of near misses: “I like winning of course, but seeing the bad luck we have, I think I cannot complain,” Lefevere said.

With the show of strength the team made today (and has made over the last several races), even if the victories have not come as readily as Etixx-QuickStep would have hoped, they will be the squad with the most legitimate contenders for next week’s Ronde van Vlaanderen, with Terpsta, Vandenbergh, and especially Zdenek Stybar all looking like viable options to challenge for the Monument victory.

The team showed at Gent-Wevelgem as they have shown time and again in the past that they are one of the strongest teams in the peloton in poor weather conditions, and if the rain and incredible winds of Gent-Wevelgem manage to stick around until the Tour of Flanders, it might seem a boon to the chances of the Belgian squad so proficient at riding in the crosswinds. Lefevere, however, was not too welcoming of the bad weather, despite his squad’s obvious favorable reaction to the conditions, saying that he hoped next week be “not as windy as today.”

“I don’t know if this was okay today,” he said. “I think if people get hurt because they’re blown away from the roads . . . there are limits.”

-Dane Cash

March 29, 2015
Gent-Wevelgem 2015: Race Day Thoughts from André Greipel, Sam Bennett, and Heinrich Haussler

VeloHuman caught up with a few of the potential protagonists of Gent-Wevelgem just before the start of the race to get some inside-the-peloton insight on the race and the day’s nasty conditions.

André Greipel (Lotto Soudal)

How do you prepare in the run-up to a race like this, when you’re looking to take that big Classics win?

The race is a bit different. . . . Unfortunately I got sick after Algarve so I had to have a break for a while. Now we have to make the best out of it. And of course, the conditions today, it’s the same for everyone. But it would be nice to win a race like Gent-Wevelgem.

How do the wind and the rain affect your hope that this race ends in a sprint?

It’s about the teams, and how strong the teams are. Of course there will be a lot of echelons today, and we’re going to see, and we hope we will be up there.

Who else will you have your eye on as rivals?

We have to work as a team. Until the end of the race, it’s really dangerous to get a disadvantage if others are doing an echelon, so we have to be concentrated on our team.

Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon 18)

How are you feeling in this weather?

Phew, I dunno. We’ll find out in a few more minutes. I don’t know. From the start it will be very difficult. It will be a long day. And with the weather, it makes it a lot colder, so we’ll just see how the body reacts.

What is the team plan for the day?

Just stay in good position all day, because you don’t know what’s going to happen in these races, you don’t know when they’re going to sprint, and try to be there for the end for the sprint. I think it’s going to be a select group, so hopefully we’ll be there.

You had a big win last month in Qatar. Still feeling on the same level?

I feel stronger, but I need a bit of luck to be in the right place at the right time I suppose.

Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling)

Thoughts on the weather?

It’s fucking shit. It’s fucking terrible, and it’s just going to get worse as we get near the coast.

How are the legs?

The legs are okay, it’s just always a matter of having good position in these types of races, having a bit of luck, no flat tires, no crashes. Hopefully that will be the case today.

-Dane Cash

March 29, 2015
Sagan’s Surprise Power Failure Leaves Stybar Following the Wrong Wheel in E3 Harelbeke Finale

When the gap between a dwindling E3 Harelbeke peloton and Peter Sagan, Geraint Thomas, and Zdenek Stybar had gone out to around one minute as the riders approached the finish line, it became clear that a victory in first Belgian Classic of the 2015 WorldTour would soon grace the palmares of one of the three riders up the road. One of them, Peter Sagan, had already won the race the year prior by outsprinting a small group of companions at the line, a group that included another member of the trio now fighting for this year’s honors, Geraint Thomas.

Given Sagan’s impressive array of abilities, it was only natural for the third member of the trio to be focusing on the Slovakian defending champion in the waning moments of this year’s race over a rider he’d beaten here last year. But Zdenek Stybar’s decision to mark Sagan at the 2015 E3 Harelbeke did not pay off. Geraint Thomas launched a powerful attack in the last few kilometers of the race, and Stybar immediately got on Sagan’s wheel thinking the younger rider would give chase—but Sagan was cooked, and he faded immediately, leaving Stybar to launch an unsuccessful attempt to bridge a gap that had now grown too far.

“I expected that Sagan would be a bit stronger, but he wasn’t,” Zdenek Stybar said after the race.

Few would fault Stybar for such an expectation. Unfortunately for the former world cyclocross champion, the tremendous strength of Thomas left no room for error in the E3 finale.

“He was really, really impressive the last four kilometers. I knew that if he went, I’d have to jump in his wheel but I thought that Sagan would do the same, and he didn’t have the legs anymore.”

Sagan was not able to offer much of an explanation as to his sudden loss of power; in a post-race interview outside the Tinkoff-Saxo bus, he seemed at a loss for words when asked what had transpired, saying that something had “turned off.”

“I felt good on Kwaremont but after, it was still a far way to go to the finish,” he said. Somewhere in between that difficult climb and the final 4 kilometers, Sagan ran out of gas. However it happened, and whenever he realized that he was scraping the bottom of the barrel, his surprise power failure was a pivotal moment in the race.

After narrowly missing out on E3, Stybar and Sagan are already looking to next week’s Ronde van Vlaanderen, where the absence of one of two would-be top contenders (Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen) will certainly alter the narrative of the race. But when asked about what the upcoming Tour of Flanders might be like with its now somewhat reduced cast of star protagonists, both Stybar and Sagan were quick to point out there was plenty of competition still out there.

“There are still enough guys who want to win the race,” said Stybar.

“There’s also a lot of other riders who are really strong and we’ll have to see in the race,” said Sagan.

In a day full of surprises, that agreement in the opinions of the two riders should not be much of a surprise: they both had front row seats to the show put on by one of strongest of those other riders today, one who will be hungry for more success in next week’s Ronde.

-Dane Cash

Photo by Reginald Dierckx.

March 27, 2015
Janez Brajkovic Happy with Chance to “Start All Over” in New Environment with UnitedHealthcare, Confident in Ability to Contend for GC Results

Back in 2012, Janez Brajkovič began his second stint at Astana with a bang, nabbing a stage win in the Volta a Catalunya and Top 10s in the Tour de Romandie and Critérium du Dauphiné before picking up an overall win in the Tour de Slovénie and then taking one the biggest results of his career, 9th overall in the Tour de France. It was a big year for the Slovenian all-rounder, 28 years old at the time, but in the two seasons that followed, Brajkovič spent more and more time playing a support role for the Kazakh outfit, as the likes of Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru rose to the fore within the team.

At the end of the 2014 season, with his Astana contract expiring, Brajkovič found himself back on the open market, but he was not without a plan. Having spent a good part of his career riding for American teams, he was hoping to return to that familiar atmosphere, and, as it turned out, there was an American team looking to add a few major talents with high-level racing experience to its roster. Brajkovič signed a two-year deal with UnitedHealthcare in October, and with the agreement in place, the team suddenly found itself with a veteran GC rider for the stage races on its calendar, and Brajkovič suddenly found himself back in a leadership role. It didn’t take long for him to get comfortable with his new surroundings.

“I think I settled in already in December,” Brajkovič told VeloHuman. “It’s just the right fit for me. I get along with everybody. The way I think and others think are pretty much the same. We’re a good group of guys, and also the staff and the management, they’re so awesome. I feel really happy to be here. Happy to be here on this team, and I think this team will continue to grow, and I’ll be a part of this team growing, and hopefully in a year or two we’ll be on a higher level, racing ProTour, with the best teams in the world.”

Currently at the Pro Continental level, UnitedHealthcare made a concerted effort over the offseason to add firepower to the roster, bringing in Brajkovič as well as versatile Italians Marco Canola and Daniele Ratto, from Bardiani-CSF and Cannondale, respectively. For Brajkovič, the opportunity for a fresh start on a team with similar values was a major draw.

“I know for myself, last year in August, it was pretty clear I was not going to stay at Astana, and what I wanted was to sign for an American team. . . . Actually I wanted to sign with UnitedHealthcare, that was the team I thought would be the best for me, just to go back and start all over again, and I think it was a good choice, and I’m happy here,” Brajkovič said. “I’m happy to be racing again, and that’s one of the most important things for myself because even if you have good condition, coming to the race and being depressed is not going to get you results.”

An English-language environment played a significant role in giving Brajkovič an immediate morale boost after a few difficult years at Astana.

“Obviously in Astana there was a language barrier. And this American mentality suits me very well. Spending a lot of time in America is also something I like and so far it’s been great,” he said.

His preparation for the major goals of 2015 is coming around now, but the offseason wasn’t perfect for Brajkovič.

“Actually . . . it was a pretty hard offseason. The weather was pretty bad all the time [in Slovenia where he spent time in December]. Training hasn’t been as I would like it to be, but the training I’ve done, I’m pretty happy with the result. I know that there is a lot of reserves still, and once I start training seriously for Tour of California, and also I think Critérium [International] is a pretty important race for us, I think there’s going to be a lot of improvement as well,” he said.

Decent climbing results in the Tour de San Luis would suggest that his form is trending in the right direction, and Brajkovič is hoping that he’ll be closer to his peak by the time the aforementioned Critérium International and Tour of California arrive. The 2.HC events are major objectives for the American squad this season. Having brought on a few big European names over the winter, there was hope among the team that an invite to this year’s Giro d’Italia might be possible as well, but the race organizers opted to look elsewhere for wildcard invites. While it wasn’t an ideal turn of events, Brajkovič notes that UHC will have their hands full as it is.

“For UnitedHealthcare it’s pretty important to have a result in the Tour of California as well. And yeah, it would be nice to race the Giro but then for the Giro you have to have a team, and that would leave Tour of California with . . . I wouldn’t say bad riders, but probably not the best possible combination of riders, not the best team. So I think we just have to focus on Tour of California and race well there. I think that’s the goal for now, and hopefully we’ll get a Vuelta invitation,” he explained.

The USA Pro Challenge and the Tour of Utah are also in Brajkovič’s sights this season, though he is hoping to lead the team in Spain if a wildcard invite to the Vuelta is indeed in the cards, a possibility that will be more likely if the team can deliver results in stage races in the spring and early summer. For the one-week races in particular, podium performances are both the aim and also the expectation for Brajkovič. And although he has only one GC Top 10 result in his palmares over the last two seasons (he was 3rd in the 2014 Vuelta a Burgos), he remains confident that he still possesses the all-rounder skillset necessary to compete as a featured rider at the highest level in the major stage races on the UnitedHealthcare calendar.

“I still think—actually, I know—that I can race for GC, and that’s the focus. For me, and for the team as well,” he said.

After spending some time playing a support role with Astana, one might expect Brajkovič to feel a bit nervous about carrying the weight of his own and the team’s hopes for the season, but he isn’t showing any signs of that right now, with the positive outlook from joining a new, more comfortable environment taking some of the stress out of his return to the role of team GC leader.

“I don’t feel like a team leader,” Brajkovič said. “We’re like a bunch of guys who get along really well. And yeah, they help me a lot, and it’s amazing to see what they do for me, how much energy they spend for me, so I’m really grateful for that. And pretty soon, I think, we’ll start getting those results we need. But I don’t feel any pressure. Of course there’s expectations but I think if I stay healthy and everything goes to plan, we’ll have results as well, so there’s nothing to be worried about.”

-Dane Cash

Photo by Maximiliano Blanco.

February 25, 2015
Tyler Farrar on Classics Ambitions and Expectations for 2015: “I Think We All Evolve as Riders over the Course of Our Careers.”

After eight seasons riding for Garmin, Tyler Farrar found himself on the market for a new team last fall. Having just turned 30, and in the middle of a season that included a few strong results but no wins to that point, the American sprinter and Classics specialist was undoubtedly a different rider than he had been in years past. As it turned out, that rider was just what Pro Continental squad MTN-Qhubeka was looking for, as part of the team’s bold push to dramatically upgrade their roster for 2015. Adding to an air of growing excitement around the South African organization, Farrar signed on amid a flurry of other high-profile additions that included Edvald Boasson Hagen, Matt Goss, and Theo Bos.

A little over a month later, Tyler Farrar took on his final event in Garmin kit, the Tour of Beijing. On the third stage of the race, Farrar was the first man across the finish line in a high-speed battle with the likes of Luka Mezgec and Moreno Hofland, taking his first win of the season, and his first WorldTour victory since his Tour de France stage win on July 4th, 2011. With two other strong stage performances in Beijing, Farrar would go on to win the Points Classification in that race as well, adding a new jersey to his collection as he closed out his long tenure with Garmin. At the end of a year of near misses, Farrar’s Beijing performance was the best way to head into an offseason of transition on the right foot, and the Washington state native attributes his ability to close out 2014 with a bang to a rekindled enthusiasm after finding his place on a new team.

“I think it is always nice to finish a season on a high note,” Farrar told VeloHuman from Spain, where he has been racing in this week’s Ruta del Sol. “2014 was a good season for me as a whole, but I had always been close to victories without actually winning. Getting a win in Beijing was really good for the head going into the winter. I think a big part of it was having signed with MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung. I was so motivated for the new project that the results really came around at the end of the season.”

Notching a 2nd-place finish behind rising Australian sprinting star Caleb Ewan in this month’s Herald Sun Tour, Farrar seems to have maintained his enthusiasm and some form through the winter and into 2015, putting him in good shape for the early goings of the season.

“I had an incredibly smooth winter, I stayed healthy and was able to really focus in on my training without any major interruptions,” he said. “I am usually the kind of rider who needs a few races in the legs before I find top form, so to already be up in the mix at my first race of the year in Sun Tour was a really good sign that my work over the winter is paying off.”

He is now part of a somewhat crowded stable of proven sprinting talents on MTN-Qhubeka, but Farrar also has the strength to feature on the spring’s grueling Classics. As such, Farrar has directed his attention towards preparation for a campaign on the cobbles. “I did a ton of threshold and power work over the winter that I hope will really pay off in Belgium this spring,” he said.

Farrar’s main target races begin towards the end of March, with the more sprinter-friendly one-day events like Gent-Wevelgem, where he has had success in the past, getting particular focus, but he is on the lookout for results at every opportunity.

“My number one goal is to be at my best for the major cobbled Classics, starting with Dwars door Vlaanderen and carrying through to Paris-Roubaix,” he said. “I have built my entire winter around it. Of course any results before then will be a nice bonus though! I am not the kind of guy who likes to go to races just for training, so I will race for the win every opportunity I get this year.”

A roster loaded with high-speed talent will make MTN-Qhubeka particularly dangerous in the springtime races catering more to quick men, though the multiplicity of options makes the roles of each potential contender a bit unclear at the moment. Farrar sees this an asset, explaining that roles will be determined out on the road: “I think we have a super strong team for 2015, especially in the Classics. The most important thing in those races is to have good numbers in the final selection so that you have a few cards to play. Once we get into that situation it will come down to who has the best legs on the day.”

Farrar’s aim to prioritize the Classics is somewhat motivated by his own evaluation of his abilities. Though still capable of contending in the pure sprints, as he has shown with plenty of sprint stage Top 5s over the past few seasons, Farrar has not quite been able to muster the same sort of top-end velocity as he once could. However, the 30-year-old American sees his less potent finishing kick as a part of his inevitable evolution as a rider, which has at the same time left him feeling more confident in his ability to survive the tough terrain in Flanders, and which has also given him the sort of experience that might make him a valuable leadout man should his team request his services in that department, a possibility Farrar says he is “really looking forward to.” In short, Farrar, appears to be embracing the evolution as he rides into this new chapter of his career, wearing the stripes of a brand new kit.

“I think we all evolve as riders over the course of our careers,” Farrar said. “While I may not have quite the same raw speed I had a few years ago, I have gotten a lot stronger. That is one of the big reasons I have focused on the Classics this year. I am also really excited to be a part of the MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung project and to help it grow. I think we have the potential to win some big races this year and if I can help make that happen, whether I am the one crossing the line first or helping one of my teammates to do it, I will count 2015 as a success.”

Landing results in the big races is presumably exactly what MTN-Qhubeka was hoping for when they made the decision to bring in Farrar and the rest of their marquee offseason signings. With wildcard invites to Milano-Sanremo, all four WorldTour Cobbled Classics, and the Tour de France, the team will certainly have opportunities to notch those high-profile results, and the veteran presence of Tyler Farrar figures to be a major part of their campaign to achieve them this year.

-Dane Cash

Photo: MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung

February 22, 2015
VeloHuman Up-and-comer Q&A Series: Wanty-Groupe Gobert’s Roy Jans

For the latest installment of the Up-and-comer Q&A Series, VeloHuman talked to Wanty-Groupe Gobert’s Roy Jans. Now in his third year with the Belgian Pro Continental squad, Roy Jans is quickly coming into his own as a fast-finisher and potential contender for the one-day races. Despite being sidelined by mononucleosis early on in 2014 after a strong start to the year, Jans returned to racing midway through last season in the form of his life, picking up a victory in the Gooikse Pijl and nabbing Top 5s in the Belgian National Championship Road Race, Brussels Cycling Classic, and Paris-Tours, among other big races. His 2015 campaign opened with further success at the beginning of February when he took a stage victory in the Étoile de Bessèges. Now he sets his sights on the one-day Classics that are just around the corner, where he hopes to define himself a bit more clearly as a rider. Though still only 24 years old, Jans will have plenty of opportunities to make statements on the Belgian cobblestones and beyond, as Wanty-Groupe Gobert is already making him an integral part of the team plans for the season. Jans talked to VH about his development so far, his program for 2015, and his hopes for the future as a rider.

VH: You won a stage at the Étoile de Bessèges at the beginning of the month, so things seem to be going pretty well already here in 2015. How was your offseason?

RJ: The offseason was really good, with a good break and then starting my training, trying to get to good shape before the season, and everything worked well.

VH: You had a bout with mononucleosis last season. Are you feeling back to full health?

RJ: Yeah, I think so. When I started back racing last season, it was not 100% gone away, but enough to start racing again. Now, it’s completely out.

VH: How do you deal with something that difficult as you are trying to develop as a young pro?

RJ: I realized that it doesn’t need to play in my head. . . . You focus on coming back stronger, and that’s what I did.

VH: Did the results that you were able to land late last season help you return with confidence?

RJ: Yeah. After the disease, I came back stronger than before. With a 2nd place in nationals, that was good for that, and then the other good results, like in France where I beat Cavendish in the sprint [Jans notched a 2nd-place finish, ahead of Mark Cavendish in 3rd, in Stage 3 of the Tour du Poitou-Charentes], and then Paris-Tours, and all those other races, they were really good for the confidence and also for the team.

VH: Given what you were seeing in training during the offseason and the way you rode in Bessèges, do you have confidence in your chances to find further success in the early-season racing to come?

RJ: In the winter I felt really good, and all the training went well. I wasn’t sick during the winter months. So I really had a good winter and now, to win directly in Étoile de Bessèges, it was a good start for me for the confidence, and also for the team it’s really good to begin the season like that.

VH: You have a strong finishing kick and you’ve also shown the sort of versatility necessary to get good results in the tougher one-day races. Is there a particular specialization as a rider that you are working towards?

RJ: For now it’s really to be very good in the final, in the sprints, and also when there is a little climb at the end of the race . . . that’s what I saw in Bessèges already, the stage that Gallopin won [Stage 4] . . . it was really a hard final and I managed 5th place and that was already an improvement in comparison with last season. So I think I think I’ve made a step up and I hope that the other results will follow during the season in some harder races.

VH: As a younger competitor, who did you look up to in the pro peloton as a rider that you enjoyed watching, or a rider you wanted to emulate?

RJ: Óscar Freire.

VH: You’re now in your third year riding at the Pro Continental level. What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned so far as a pro?

RJ: That you really need to do everything for it. And you need to listen to your body, when you are training, when you are home, you need to listen to your body. And if you can start a race with a fresh head and fresh legs, that’s the most important thing.

VH: You signed on for two more years with Wanty-Groupe Gobert at the end of last season. What is it about the team that appeals to you and makes you want to stay?

RJ: I could go to bigger teams but I choose to stay because they give me the opportunity to ride my own races. I can choose my whole program, and also the races that I start, they will ride for me. And that’s important for me, for getting stronger and seeing how far I can come in some races.

VH: You’ve been one of the most successful riders on the team in the past year. Has Wanty-Groupe Gobert told you that they have any particular expectations for you or the role that you’ll play in the near future?

RJ: Not yet. Just for me to win stages. That’s what I want and also what the team wants.

VH: Do you know what your program looks like for the next few months?

RJ: I know my program until the beginning of April. My first Belgian race [after taking on the Volta ao Algarve, which starts Wednesday] will be Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, so that’s already a good race for me I think. I really want to make a good result in that race. And then you have Le Samyn, also a nice race. And then Gent-Wevelgem, also important, and then I don’t ride Flanders this year, because I should be fresh for Scheldeprijs. And then it’s possible that I will ride Roubaix, and then I’ll have a little break and start again in the Tour of Turkey.

VH: Do you have any personal objectives set for 2015?

RJ: Last season I didn’t get to do the spring Classics because of the disease. So now is actually the first time that I will do it in good shape. So just seeing how far I can come, and also for the next few years, if there are races that really suit me and if I can get a good result in some of those races, that’s good for the future. Because I’m still very young, and I’m not yet saying, “that race I want to win,” or, “that race I want to do a good result.” It’s every race I start, I want to give the best of me and then we’ll see what will come.

VH: That said, you’ve ridden in most of the big Classics so far already—which one have you enjoyed the most?

RJ: For me, and for a rider like me, Gent-Wevelgem is a really nice race. It’s also one of the goals of this year and we’ll do our best to come as far as possible.

Often coming down to a sprinters’ showdown, Gent-Wevelgem looks like a prime opportunity for Jans to put his finishing kick on display and notch a benchmark result for the future. Enjoying the support of Wanty-Groupe Gobert, who have invested in his development for a few years now, Jans is motivated to prove his ability this season even as he still learns more about his own strengths as a rider, making it all the more likely that he could feature sooner rather than later in the biggest races on the cycling calendar.

-Dane Cash

February 17, 2015