COACH’S CORNER

Antti-Jussi is like an Ardennes classics rider, good at short punchy hills in the one- day races. He’s good at finishes from small groups. To be honest, I think he’s quite promising as a cyclist, with a lot of potential. The first two years when he started to race seriously, he was in a French amateur team, and no one was really looking after him; he was on his own. When he joined the team last year he now has a complete programme, and has training camps with his team-mates. He has progressed from when he joined up to the end of the last year. He’s under a bit of pressure because he is one of the older guys on the team, and he has to perform in order to get to the next level. That’s always a big step for a cyclist. I think that if everything goes well this year, he will have to move on from this level. With Ampler Development

Team, we start this spring in Belgium, we have races in Poland too, and even in the Tour of Estonia there are Ardennes-style days that suit him perfectly as well. We are hoping for good results - some podiums from him. He needs to gain a little bit more self confidence, and to keep cool when it comes to decision making in races. At the moment he is doing his national service with the Finnish army, so I hope that will help his development.