Matej Mohoric
Cannondale pro cycling
Here I am, taking some time out in my hotel room, waiting for the Tour de Romandie to begin. I’ve only just arrived from Belgium, where I took part in the Ardennes Classics.
But before I got there, I spent two weeks training in Tenerife on Mount Teide with the team. The island is astonishing for a bike rider. It’s packed with climbs of a length I’ve never even come close to riding, so it was a new experience for me. I’d never climbed for more than an hour before in one go but over there, even our climb back to the hotel every day was more than that. It was two hours from bottom to top with more than 2,000m vertical gain.
Like so many things in this, my first year as a pro, the training camp at altitude was new for me. I’ve raced at altitude before, at last year’s Tour of Qinghai Lake, but that’s not the same. I’m still only 19 so my coaches were always paying attention to the amount of work I did. Naturally, my programme was a bit easier than my team-mates’ because I’m not yet capable of absorbing the same volume.
I felt better as the camp wore on and felt confident heading into the hilly Ardennes. I had three objectives there: the first, to help the team as much as I could; the second, to finish each and every race to gain experience for the future; the third, to make it in the breakaway at least once and last as long as possible. I completed goal number three at the first opportunity, in the Amstel Gold. I was part of the early breakaway and I managed to stay away for 215 kilometres. After I was caught, there were another 35 kilometres to the finish and I was completely empty, it was a struggle just to make it. It was the longest ride of my life so far and doing it in a race like that puts things into perspective.
My efforts left me tired for La Flèche Wallonne on the following Wednesday but again, I had ticks in the boxes of objectives one and two and was impressed by the speed and power of the peloton.
I recovered in time for Sunday and was ready for the Old Lady, Liège-Bastogne-Liège. If I finished, I would eclipse my longest ever ride for the second time in a week. And I did!
The Ardennes were a special experience. So many passionate people, so many fans, such a great atmosphere. I can’t wait to do it all again next year!