JENS DEBUSSCHERE
B& B Hotels’ Belgian classics specialist and lead- out man on the right team atmosphere
The Belgian classics are really close to home.
They’re the roads I train on every day. No corner has any secrets any more, I know practically every hole in the road and every obstacle, so that’s a big advantage. Gent-Wevelgem is probably my favourite, because it’s not as hard as the Ronde, in climbing and hills. That’s the one where I’m at my best, and it feels like home because Wevelgem isn’t far from my parents’ place. Taking the national championships was my best experience in cycling, partly because it was close to home.
My French is getting better every day.
I feel really good in this team. They support me, and I try to support them. At last year’s Tour de France I tried to give everything for them, and now I’m really happy with my choice to come to this team. They’re a great bunch of people, everybody gets along. It feels like a family team, like I had at Lotto Soudal actually. I missed this maybe a little bit at Katusha, but maybe it was the circumstances. It was a bit different there.
It wasn’t great at Katusha.
At the beginning it’s all fun, obviously: new team, new bike, and everything. You could sense something wasn’t right just before the 2019 Tour de France. The news that the team was going to stop came through as we were there before the start in Brussels. I couldn’t even look for a team right then because I had a contract for the next year, so it was really strange for me. We had some good times too, I got to know some great people and some great riders. But that was completely different from Lotto and now at B&B.
When I came to this team, I felt immediately the same vibes as I did at Lotto.
The family feeling, everyone was happy with each other. It wasn’t like four or five guys in one corner and the rest in the other, so it was a huge difference. When I came here, I remembered my time with André [Greipel] and the other guys at Lotto, and I just wanted to give my all for the leaders here. I like to do that. I think I’m good at it as well.
I got quite a lot of attention after I missed the time cut in the Tour de France last year on stage 17.
I said to my friends and family that I’ve won some small races before, and this was actually getting more attention than that. I was happy with my performance. I was waiting for Bryan Coquard to help him get inside the time limit, but I was disappointed to leave the Tour. I did what I had to do. Suddenly it was some kind of heroic story, but it felt a bit more like a failure for me. The team was happy though, and that’s why I do my job. After a few days I was happy to see Bryan still in the Tour and in the fight on the Champs.
I love the feeling of doing what you want.
Training whatever hours you want, the freedom. You know you have to get in shape, whether that’s short or long term, but as long as you’re ready on a date, you have to manage yourself with the timing. That’s what I like the most, knowing that no one is on your case. I like to prepare myself.
I like going out by myself sometimes, but I also like doing group rides at training camps too.
I often go out alone. Actually, after a team camp and being together with a group of riders it’s nice to do a few days or weeks alone on the bike. Not getting stressed by how many watts someone else is doing, but just getting in shape and doing whatever you need to do.
We had a really great group at Lotto. It was a really good atmosphere, I enjoyed my time there.
We are still all friends even though we’re at completely different teams now, or retired. Friends for life. I had a really good bond with Marc Sergeant, who was manager there. We could speak easily when something was up, and I think that’s how it should be.
I think people go faster now.
It’s a little bit of everything - bikes, nutrition has changed a lot - everything together makes a big difference. Everything starts younger, even at under-23 level people are going on altitude camps. It’s amazing to see how many young guys are basically already dominating cycling. They start younger and follow really professional steps. Living this life in cycling makes you feel young, though.