BOB JUNGELS
DECEUNINCK QUICK STEP
When Bob Jungels turned pro in 2013 with Radioshack, he faced a crossroads; he won Paris-Roubaix U23 the year before, so clearly had a knack for the cobbles. He could time trial well and climb. But that kind of versatility also meant Jungels had the luxury of choosing what area to specialise in. Initially he followed his compatriots and team-mates Andy and Fränk Schleck to focus on the Ardennes.
The decision was far from a bad one, Jungels has finished in the top 10 of the Giro twice, and won Liège last year. But the question niggled: what could he do in the cobbled classics if given the chance?
After winning Liège, Jungels decided that for 2019 he would take on a new challenge and ride the Flandrian classics. “I think I have quite a lot of experience on the cobbles as a junior and U23, and last year in the Tour I went well on the cobbles, so the Tour of Flanders was always in my mind,” Jungels tells Procycling. “At the end of the year we decided, together with the team, that I would give it a shot.”
Starting at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Jungels is riding a full cobbled campaign through to the Tour of Flanders. He will skip Roubaix, as well as Amstel Gold and Flèche, and depending on form, defend his Liège title at the end of April. He will then switch to riding GC at the Giro in May. While Jungels raced Paris-Roubaix in 2013 and has ridden the Roubaix pavé at the Tour, his Flanders experience is much more limited. He started Dwars door Vlaanderen in his first year, and has ridden the Eneco Tour which features the same roads as Het Nieuwsblad, but little else.
Despite the change of focus, Jungels hasn’t altered his training or his weight. “My training didn’t change very much; maybe I did a little bit more power training next to the bike, just fitness, but I’m the same weight that I was last year at this time. We had Colombia [Colombia 2.1 race], I had three weeks at altitude, I was still able to climb, so it still seems the same.”
Jungels thinks the biggest difference between the cobbled and Ardennes races doesn’t come down to physical attributes, but rather a different mental attitude.
“The cobbled classics are a bit more nervous; positioning is even more important because so much can happen during the race,” he says. “If you take Liège, there’s a natural selection after 200km, but before that it’s not that dangerous in terms of being a nervous bunch of riders. I think in the cobbled classics it’s straight from the start, that was my experience when
I rode Roubaix, it was full stress from the start and I think it takes a lot more mentally from you.”
He continues: “It’s kind of a technique on the cobbles and it’s pretty hard to describe. Some riders just don’t feel good on cobbles and others do, and I never really had a problem with it.”
Jungels clearly adapted fast to the switch. Despite saying he was just riding for experience, he won Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on opening weekend.