INTERVIEW: MICHAEL MØRKØV
Probably the best lead-out rider in the world, and a genuine gold medal contender in the Tokyo Olympics
Michael Mørkøv is like every other selfless domestique who suffers for the benefit of his or her appointed leader. His results rarely reflect his sacrifice, and as he points out: “It’s never me standing on top of the podium with the flowers and the prize money.” But where the Deceuninck-Quick Step rider differs from his peers is that being a good domestique on the road prepares the Dane for individual glory. Mørkøv leads a double life: he is both domestique and serial winner.
As well as delivering Sam Bennett to numerous sprint wins, Mørkøv is the reigning world champion and 2019 European champion in the Madison, with Lasse Norman Hansen, and the Danes are the favourites to win the gold medal in this summer’s Tokyo Olympics. As well as being arguably the best leadout riders in the current peloton, he gets on his bike every day focused on his own triumphs. “Every day I train, I am thinking about the Olympics and telling myself that
I am a current world champion,” Mørkøv tells Procycling. “When I am on the track, I have the mindset that I have to be at the level which will make me the best. I am not putting my goals any lower than that.”
His desire in pursuit of track glory is such that Mørkøv even uses the Tour de France as a training block. “I see it as the best preparation coming into the Olympics. It will give me optimal preparation,” he says. Very few riders would describe the Tour as a training ride, especially one who shoulders the responsibility of having to help his team win multiple stages.
But then very few riders have a skill set as broad as Mørkøv. He’s won five pro road races himself, though he’s better known as an individual who late in his career has emerged as a lead-out specialist, and he carries the hopes of a nation on the Olympic track. He’s as indispensable to his country as he is to his trade team, and is bucking current trends in cycling while approaching his 37th year. Young riders have been performing spectacularly well in the last few years, but Mørkøv has been hitting career-best form in his mid-30s. “I am turning 36 soon and I feel better than ever,” he says.
NEW AMBITIONS
In 2016, Mørkøv was a respected domestique at Tinkoff-Saxo and an occasional bit-part player in the sprints. It had been eight years since he had claimed a silver medal in the Beijing Olympics in the team
pursuit, and in the intervening years he’d taken numerous victories in Six Day races, along with stages of the Vuelta a España and Tour of Denmark, and the first of three career wins in the Danish road race nationals. But though he was ambitious in the sprints, he wasn’t winning prolifically, which was partly the consequence of his team’s ambitions at the time.
“At Saxo Bank it was all about the GC and climbing,” he says. But there was more to it than that: whenever he involved himself in a sprint, he never really threatened to win.
“I clearly remember sprints that I tried to be involved in as a young rider and I couldn’t stay at the front,” he says. “I couldn’t hold the wheel I wanted and I’d pass the finish line with 35 other guys trying to sprint for the victory. I remember how difficult it is to be at the front trying to win a sprint, and I have huge respect for those that do because it’s something I never experienced, nor will do.”
In 2016, Mørkøv concluded that he couldn’t win sprints himself. A move to Katusha followed and he became a crucial part of Alexander Kristoff’s support team. “We had some success together,” he modestly says of their 16 wins. After two years with Katusha, he moved to Quick-Step Floors. “I found myself and renewed myself a little bit,” he says. “I really developed as a rider at a later age.”
Working mostly for Elia Viviani, an Olympic gold medallist on the track, but also Fabio Jakobsen and Álvaro Hodeg in his first two seasons with the Belgian squad, he helped the trio win 26 races. In 2020, new arrival Sam Bennett won seven times with Mørkøv leading him out, including on the Champs Élysées at the Tour. He’s started this season just as strongly, assisting Bennett to two victories in the UAE Tour and riding to third place himself on the opening stage. On eight occasions with DQS where his sprinter has
won, he’s been so fast as a leadout that he’s finished in the top 10.
The statistics illustrate his effectiveness, while the plaudits illuminate the work he does. Bennett has described him as “incredible”, while Viviani, who scored 20 wins with Mørkøv by his side, says he is “unbelievable”.
“He does an amazing job. He is the best in choosing the time and he does it perfectly,” said Viviani. Since leaving Deceuninck-Quick Step, Viviani has failed to win.
“I am really flattered about all of the compliments,” Mørkøv says. “In this role, I am very happy when people see what I am doing. Their nice words about the big part I play in a victory means a lot.”
His assist tally at Deceuninck could have been bigger, too. “Many times as a lead-out man you do a super good job, a perfect leadout in the situation, but then the sprinter doesn’t win. You can do the
best lead-out in the world but if he doesn’t win, no one cares what you did.” Mørkøv feels that the 2020 season has been his strongest so far. “Last year was my best year on the road. I’ve shown I can do this job of being the best at delivering.” He owes that to his worldliness, refining his expertise, studying his rivals, always trying to develop, and being part of the WorldTour’s most successful winning team.
“When I am in the race against some of the other best lead-out men, I try to analyse them and how they prepare and deliver their sprints,” he says. “I focus on myself and my own development because it’s not easy, definitely not. But sometimes when I look back at a sprint, I think how easy it actually was to get the sprinter delivered in terms of getting the right position. But I can only credit that to experience and the years I have already done, as well as basing what I do on instinct.”
His age and his experience as a world class track rider allow him to thrive in his position as Deceuninck’s penultimate pilot, taking the speed up a final few kilometres an hour. “It’s rare to find a young rider who accepts this role in the team. If they are young and have ambition, and think they are the team’s future sprinter, it is rare
he can really sacrifice himself for another rider. But for me, I have the track, and maybe without thinking about it, it’s easier to accept being a domestique who doesn’t take as many personal victories. I know in the background I have my track racing and when I am on the track it’s only about me, and me and my partner when I do the Madison. The track is where I have my main focus to build my own results.”
It was only in June 2017 that the Madison was confirmed as being returned to the Olympics after being pulled from the schedule in 2012 and 2016. “Straight away I knew it would be a big goal of mine and a big motivating factor,” he says. “The Madison is the best discipline in cycling. It’s a complete event - you need to be fast, have really good endurance, be tactical, clever, technically good, all of these and work with a partner. There are so many aspects in that race that I really like.”
He has forged an all-conquering partnership with team-mate Hansen. “We can’t expect to travel to Tokyo to pick up the gold medal, but the ambition is definitely to go for gold.”
Mørkøv is an engaging listen, a thoughtful master of his craft. On the track he has already won 12 national titles and 12 Six Days, including two at the competitive Gent Six. And he seems to prefer talking about track racing than road racing. In our 30-minute conversation, he says three times that his “big passion is for the track”, twice, “I love track” and once, “I know my heart is with track racing; it’s why I keep coming back to it.” At the same time, he refers to it as a “pastime”, compared to his day job at Deceuninck-Quick Step.
There’s also an acknowledgement that being good on the road carries more weight. “I love track racing more than I do the road, but the only thing is that we cannot deny the prestige is much bigger on the road,” he says. “To be happy about a victory, there needs to be some amount of prestige in it. If
I win a race that lots of riders want to win, it’s a better feeling than if not so many wanted to win it. That’s what it is on the track – it’s more specific, a niche, guys who are specialists in their field.”
The track is his pastime and the road is where he collects his pay stub. But he does still get a sense of fulfilment from road racing. “With the years I feel like I have learned to enjoy team-mates’ victories like it was my own,” he says. “Look at Procyclingstats and I won’t figure as part of Sam’s win on the Champs-Élysées and it won’t go on my palmarès. But what is a palmarès? We all ride around for experiences, and a life experience for me is to win with my team on the Champs-Élysées. It’s a huge experience to be part of winning the green jersey in the Tour de France, an extremely proud moment.
“It’s the same as many of the victories that I helped Viviani take. I am not shy of being proud of being part of a victory. It’s not so important for me that the victory is dedicated to me – I know myself that I had a part to play. Maybe I can look back at the sprints and realise my role was a game-changer, I can see the move I did was the move that made it a winning sprint.”
If a fast finish is on the cards, the sport has learned in the last five years that Mørkøv will play a pivotal role. And though he’s entering his late 30s, he is ambitious to remain the best lead-out in the world and to perhaps win an Olympic gold medal. “Almost every year I expect that this will be the year that I will start to lose my level, not be as fast as I once was,” he says. “But every year so far I have proved myself wrong. I think I’ll be carrying on at least a few more years.” He’ll do so as a central figure, whether that’s on the road or track.