ROGER KLUGE
LOTTO SOUDAL
Roger Kluge extended his contract with Lotto Soudal before the 2020 season had even begun, now keeping him with the team until 2022. It’s a mark of how successful the German leadout specialist’s first season with the Belgian team was, after he joined from Mitchelton-Scott along with sprinter Caleb Ewan at the start of 2019. Ewan might be the headline name, the rider who won the team 10 races last season, but right alongside him at nine out of the 10 victories - including his two Giro d’Italia and three Tour de France stage wins - was the towering Kluge. This year will be the fourth season the two have raced together, and it’s no coincidence that the Australian’s rise to the top tier of sprinting has coincided with his partnership with Kluge.
“I work so the team wins or Caleb wins, but now I also won a little bit and got a contract. That’s super nice,” Kluge tells Procycling. “I’m happy that Caleb and Jasper [de Buyst] signed, so we three stay together and hopefully repeat the season like this in the future as well.”
Kluge and Ewan are an unlikely duo on paper; one a pint-sized Australian from bustling Sydney aged 25, the other a 6ft 3in German born in Eisenhüttenstadt in the far east of the country on the border with Poland, who’s eight years older. But Kluge says the pair hit it off almost instantly. “We have similar behaviour in general life. We like everything to be in line - in our room we don’t open our suitcases and have everything everywhere; we’re organised,” he says. “At the first race in 2017 with Orica at Down Under we didn’t talk much but we had a coach who gave us a personality quiz. He showed us that we were similar. Since then we are good friends, we trust each other.”
In the heat of a bunch sprint finish, keeping calm is key and Kluge believes that, plus his experience, is his biggest asset in the role. “Now is my 10th year as a pro. And my size, I’m tall; I have a good overview. Then just a good sensation or feeling for the race and what happens in a race,” he says. “I can’t tell Caleb how to sprint. I know that he loves to follow me in the race, because the way I ride is pretty smooth, not crazy, not going through the bunch and moving around, so he feels safe behind me. He can trust me, even if he sees nothing except my back wheel.”
The 2020 season is set to follow a similar path to 2019. Milan-San Remo is the first major supporting role for Kluge, before building up for returns to the Giro and Tour. Still, it’s not all a team role for Kluge this year, who has some pretty big ambitions of his own although they come inside the velodrome, at the Olympics in Tokyo. Kluge started his career racing on the track, and was a gold medallist at the Track World Cup the year prior to signing his first pro road contract in 2008. Last year, he and his long-time team-mate Theo Reinhart retained their Madison world title and Kluge hopes to match that, first at the Worlds at home in Germany in Berlin, then at the Olympics where he is also aiming for the omnium.
“It doesn’t take so many training sessions for me to prepare for the track. The Madison is a track race but it’s like a road race, 50 minutes, and nothing really specific. Even the omnium changed to four bunch races - they took out the TTs,” he says. “If I have a good Tour without crashes and without any sickness then I’m pretty sure that I can have a good Olympic Games.”
“Caleb loves to follow me in the race because the way I ride is pretty smooth, not crazy, not moving around, so he feels safe behind me”