EXPERIENCE
The experienced Dutch rider on becoming a leader at Bahrain Victorious
I feel really good in this team. Last
year was always going to be a weird year, but now, you get to know people a little bit better and how they work. I’m pretty happy here. You just crack on with it, there’s a really good vibe in the team, and we’ve started this year pretty well.
I always quite like to ride iconic climbs, the big names.
It’s pretty cool to ride on those climbs. You only normally ride Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France, so it was nice to ride it in the Tour de la Provence. I quite enjoyed it.
I always enjoy the big, big climbs. There are climbs like the Angliru, Alpe d’Huez and the Stelvio, where if you can do them, it’s super nice, and you’re part of cycling history for it.
As a grand tour leader, you have to be fully focused for three weeks.
When you work for someone, you can sometimes have some of the day off. But my role hasn’t changed a lot. I’ve led at races like the Tour Down Under, Tirreno and the Tour of Poland.
At the Tour de France last year I had that crash where I fractured my rib.
I couldn’t do anything any more, which was a bit sh*t. When you crash on the first day, you keep hoping you’re going to get better. By the end of the Tour it was a little bit better, but not amazing, of course. Because it was such a weird year in 2020, I was not sure how many more races I would do. Nothing was certain. I thought I’d better carry on racing. It was my own choice, the team didn’t force me.
I did some amazing things with Team Sky.
Winning Liège, of course. I think I did seven grand tours and was in the winning team six times. Four Tours, one Giro and one Vuelta, so I have great memories. I’m really thankful for my opportunities there. We always had a nice group and I enjoyed the training camps. It was pretty special every time, but at one point I felt like I had to move on.
It would have been easy to sign another contract and choose the safe way, just doing what I did for five years.
But you also want to ride for yourself. I don’t regret that I worked so much as a domestique, but at some point it’s really nice to get the best results for yourself. I wanted to go for it, and it was exciting to come to a new team, get a new bike and meet new people.
When I won Liège, I didn’t know that was the first monument for the team.
I thought they must have already won one. I’m super proud of that. It’s even nicer that I won the first one for such a big team. To win a classic is something you dream of.
I remember wins like LiègeBastogne-Liège when I start to speak about it, but it’s not like I remember every detail of the whole event, or every stone in the road.
It was a pretty long race. I remember throwing my gloves away, because I knew I was going to have to sprint for the win. You go on automatic pilot a bit, you have to rely on your racing instinct to make the move.
My brother was always riding his bike.
He started with our father at the weekend with some friends. As he became older, he took it more seriously, and I thought it sounded fun. I started because of him, because I saw him do cool things. I caught the virus: the cycling virus. My first two years, we were at the same team, and at one point he had to make a decision to leave. He’s really happy for me now.
I change my favourite race every interview I do.
I like Flèche Wallonne. It’s not the biggest race, but the Mur de Huy is so iconic, you have to wait for it and then it’s the quickest up it who wins the race. It’s a short, steep motherf*cker. It’s just on a Wednesday, but that little mountain is fully packed with people. If I had to pick one race to win, I’d really like that.
It would be nice if I could do better than fourth.
I love the freedom that comes with cycling.
When I was 14 I could cycle, like, 30km away from my house. Normally you’d have to wait until you were 16 and buy a scooter. I really like the game of racing too, trying to be good, and you get to go to some nice places.