INTERVIEW: JASPER STUYVEN
Jasper Stuyven won his first major spring classic at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad last year. Procycling speaks to the former teen prodigy about what’s changed since the win and how he deals with racing in the Belgian cycling spotlight
The classics specialist on cycling, his Omloop victory and dealing with expectation in Belgium
Jasper Stuyven was a teenager, only 17, when the glare of Belgian cycling fandom first fell on him. In Moscow in August 2009, he became the first rider from his country in 27 years to win the junior world road title. He returned home from Russia to Heverlee, a town in Flemish Brabant, and found a crowd of people waiting to greet him with banners, and journalists and photographers desperate for a piece of him. Six months later he’d win Paris-Roubaix juniors, and the spotlight intensified. In less than 12 months, Stuyven had become the hottest young property in cycling, touted as the most promising Belgian talent in years.
Cycling, and in particular Belgian cycling where the sport is ingrained in everyday life, has a culture of crowning champions before they’ve even turned pro. Young riders are often dubbed the next Eddy Merckx, or Johan Museuuw, or Tom Boonen.
Stuyven was labelled with the same wunderkind tag and when he finally joined the WorldTour in 2014 with Trek, it was said to be a matter of when, not if, he would start winning classics. Yet for Stuyven, it took seven years of being a pro rider before that major classics win came, at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad last February. But the expectation around him never went away.
“That’s part of Belgian cycling,” Stuyven tells Procycling. “They are really easy in saying, you should win this or you should win that. But they say about 10 classics riders that they should win a classic the next year, but they tend to forget that there are also other non-Belgian riders in the race and there are also only six or seven classics. So it’s really hard if you put that expectation about a rider in general, which was also myself included, to then afterwards say he did a shit job and he didn’t live up to the expectations.
“I mean, expectations are fine but expectations should be realistic - and name me 10 Belgian riders that should win a classic, who show that they are a good rider. It’s impossible if there are only seven classics and you also have an international field. I think that is sometimes a little bit unfair. It’s also this that you learn to live with and that may be an advantage… the pressure I had or the eyes that I had on me from a really young age, that gave advantages but also disadvantages.”
Stuyven has been one of the most consistent classics riders in the peloton over the last five years. His victory in semi-classic Kuurne-BrusselsKuurne in 2016, which he won after attacking solo with 20km to go, was considered his breakthrough; the first of what would be many more one-day race wins to follow. Stuyven graduated through the Trek ranks at a time when Fabian Cancellara was readying for retirement. Stuyven even watched Cancellara win the 2010 Roubaix title hours after his victory in the junior race - and his win at Kuurne came months before Cancellara hung up his wheels. If Trek needed an heir apparent to the Swiss, surely they had one.
Since then, Stuyven has finished in the top 10 of every major spring one-day race, and has best places of seventh in Flanders and fourth in Roubaix. But the big win had so far eluded him. His victory at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad certainly felt a long time coming, but for Stuyven it was
even more significant. The 2019 spring campaign a year before marked a considerable low point - despite feeling he was in good shape and having trained more than ever before, Stuyven’s best result was only 17th in Gent-Wevelgem. He was at a loss to explain why nothing was going right for him, and called that year’s E3 BinckBank Classic the lowest point of his career. It provided a catalyst for change.
“It’s an important win because 2019 didn’t go as we expected and hoped for. So I think winning Omloop was the first classic where not only I, but the whole team, kicked back from a season that didn’t go as we hoped. On paper we had a strong team but we were never able to show that in 2019, and things went wrong. That, for me, was the most important thing about winning Omloop: that we showed the team management, the other teams but also ourselves that we deserve to be up there and that also we have the capacity in the team to be up there and be present in the race,” Stuyven says.
“It was just a frustrating classics season. After Flanders I was already looking forward to my break. I think that says enough. As a classics rider I target the classics and it’s another year that you lose the possibility of being competitive, but it’s part of the job; mentality is a big part of that.”
It’s telling that the biggest change Stuyven made ahead of 2020, and his victory in Omloop, was leaving the Belgian cycling bubble. Years of living inside the fish bowl had perhaps started to have an effect and Stuyven decided to pack up and follow a number of his peers in relocating to Monaco.
“Moving to Monaco for me, for myself, was a really, really good move and not only for the training,” he says. “I can talk about the training and how good it is and the weather, but for me personally the biggest change I noticed is that in Belgium cycling is so big, they always ask you lots of times to show up, to be there, to visit.
“By moving to Monaco I just felt that I had more time to myself. I enjoy the time that I sometimes have nothing to do. Whereas I feel like in Belgium, I was always rushed, I was always pressured by people I wanted to see, but also people who wanted to see me, or people who wanted to ask for something from me. In Monaco it’s easy, because you’re a little bit further away. That does really help in being mentally fresh and how important it is to give yourself some time, some ‘me’ time.”
The change was noticeable last spring, particularly in the manner in which Stuyven won. He learned to focus on the big picture, he says, whereas before he was overthinking and focussed on every little detail. “Sometimes, in 2018 or 19, I was maybe too scared to go all-in or nothing, because you feel responsible for the team, for yourself, or for everyone that you should get the result for, where sometimes it is better to go,” Stuyven says.
“The team told me they would support me more if I race all-ornothing, if you are all-in like in Omloop. I think all the races
I’ve won were always in that way. I don’t need to remind myself, but I think that’s the way I race the best, just to go on instinct and maybe sometimes spend a little bit more energy than I should. But that also gives me confidence to be there in the next move and so on and so on.”
At Omloop Stuyven was one of seven riders who formed the winning group with just over 70km remaining. When they reached the decisive Muur van Geraardsbergen with 18km to go, Stuyven proved one of the strongest, setting the pace on the climb with Yves Lampaert, and distancing all but Søren Kragh Andersen. When the trio came to the final sprint in Ninove, Stuyven shut down attacks by Lampaert before confidently leading out the sprint. It was an assured move; while knowing he was likely the quicker of the two, Stuyven still had to time his sprint, and stop the Deceuninck rider getting the jump on him.
“It gave more confirmation that I should race in that way, and also a lot of confidence in my team and myself. That’s the major takeaway from that win,” Stuyven says. “Omloop was really an example where I had really, really good legs, so of course that also gives something, you know? It gives you confidence if you feel that you can make the difference and see you are making the difference when you are not on the limit yet. That does change some of the way you approach a final.”
In one-day racing perhaps more than anywhere else, the difference between the riders at the top is minute. The little things, such as having the right belief, can help make the difference between a win or a top-10 result, Stuyven believes.
“In my opinion, when you are able to fight for podiums you can also win. It’s in the small details,” Stuyven says. “But if you don’t believe that, and simply say I ride for podiums, or close to podiums, that I won’t be able to win because that’s the difference or that’s the level I don’t have... I think that’s the wrong approach. I think that if you don’t believe yourself you can win a race, you won’t win a race.
“I’m not going to win a classic unexpectedly. A win is what you go for. Being up there fighting for the win also gives motivation to be there again and try to actually get that point.”
One of the most influential figures in Stuyven’s career has been Axel Merckx, son of Eddy, the greatest Belgian cyclist in history. He persuaded Stuyven as a teenager to join his Livestrong under-23 team, and move to the USA. Few young riders leave Belgium, particularly those as coveted as Stuyven was, purely because they don’t need to. There are enough home-grown teams to nurture them and enough races to occupy their every need on the bike, that leaving home isn’t a necessity in the same way it is for riders from other cycling nations. But, as Stuyven says, if anyone could relate to the feeling of having an entire country watching
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ROFESSIONAL CAREER WINS
your every move, expecting greatness from you, it was the son of Eddy Merckx.
“As a junior I really had a good connection with Axel Merckx, because he has been in the same situation, obviously for a slightly different reason, that he has a lot of pressure,” Stuyven says. “I never was a fan of racing every weekend, which in Belgium, especially when I was that age, was the way: you have to race as much as possible. I didn’t really like that approach. Axel had the approach where you prepare well for a goal and one good go at that goal, and I like that approach and way of working.
“Of course, as an 18 or 19-yearold it’s a challenge, it’s something exciting to discover the US and be able to be there and start to learn to live on your own and all those things. I think for my career it was nice, but personally I really enjoyed that time as well.”
It quickly becomes apparent that it’s important to Stuyven to have a life away from cycling. For a chunk of his career, he juggled racing with studying for a degree in business management (he put it on hold when keeping up with the workload became too much), while he owns a chocolate shop near his home in Betekom, Belgium. His chocolatier uncle takes care of the day-to-day business, but Stuyven manages to drop in to sample the latest products when he can.
“I think if you only have cycling, it can limit you, but if you are in the first five years of your career and you are so successful you win every race you start, then it’s also maybe worth it to be only focusing on that and burn out after.” he says.
With a renewed energy and outlook, Stuyven goes into 2021 buoyant. His partnership with Mads Pedersen is looking more formidable each year - Pedersen enjoyed his own classics breakthrough in 2020, winning Gent-Wevelgem - and their friendship off the bike clearly has a positive effect on their working relationship. “We are really happy for each other if we win and I believe we make each other stronger.”
Stuyven also has a home World Championships, starting and finishing near his doorstep in Leuven, to look forward to in September where he hopes to be selected for Belgium. As well as having inside knowledge on the roads, he has a record of winning in Leuven, having won the 1.1 ranked GP Jef Scherens there in 2018. “To have it in your home city, or close, that all gives that little bit extra. I think if I look at when I won the race in Leuven, it was a 1.1 race, the feeling I had of winning that race was already quite intense so I have no idea what it would be to win the Worlds in my home city. Of course it’s a major goal.”
Either way, now aged 28, and with a major classics win on his palmarès, Stuyven feels he’s coming into his own. His dream of winning Roubaix, to match his cobble from the junior race, is very much still in mind.
“I always said when I turned professional that I was not going to be a rider who was going to win a lot, especially the first years. I always said I’ll work to be at my best, the best Jasper, from 27 to 33, 34 and I think for me personally I have a feeling that I’m reaching that level. I’m not going to say that now I am going to be winning all the races but all the experience and being that little bit stronger again, it gives me a little bit more confidence, and looking forward to race finals, the belief that I can win the race.”
“I’M NOT GOING TO WIN A CLASSIC UNEXPECTEDLY. A WIN IS WHAT YOU GO FOR. BEING UP THERE FIGHTING FOR THE WIN ALSO GIVES MOTIVATION TO BE THERE AGAIN”