"He's just a normal human being."

Good morning,

These are today's quotes and interviews worth your time.

Stood out to me today: "I was rooming with 19-year-old teammates who had their own mental coaches, their own nutritionist. They wouldn't be talking to me. They'd have their earphones on watching a mental rehearsal, a self-belief video."

¡Vamos!

🎤 INTERESTING INTERVIEWS

"It's not all over if he doesn't win Flanders or Roubaix. I think he will be remembered regardless."

Grischa Niermann on what makes Wout van Aert different

Wout van Aert rode into In Flanders Fields on Sunday to a wall of sound. "Woutje! Woutje!" The cheers followed him from the bus to the sign-on podium and back again. Not even Mathieu van der Poel got close to that level of affection. Barry Ryan's piece in Domestique explores what sits beneath it.

Visma | Lease a Bike Sports Director Grischa Niermann explains WVA's popularity: "It's not only within the team, I think he's loved all over the world, and especially in Belgium, of course. Why? Because he's a great guy and he's a great leader of our team. And I think people love him for all the victories that he has, but also for the defeats and the bad moments he had. And yeah, he's just a normal human being…"

On the Classics: "We know it's not easy competing against Pogačar and Van der Poel, but absolutely the desire is there to win." And on the stakes: "These are the races we want to win, but we are not chasing them blindly. It's not all over if he doesn't win Flanders or Roubaix. I think he will be remembered regardless. But his career is far from over, so there are a lot of chances."

"She'll be one of our big cards to play."

Kelvin Dekker on Marlen Reusser's return at Dwars door Vlaanderen Women

Marlen Reusser lines up at Dwars door Vlaanderen Women today, her first race since crashing out of the UAE Tour Women at the start of February. The crash left no broken bones, but deep lacerations to her hand and knee kept her off the bike for weeks. Kelvin Dekker, Sports Director at Movistar Team, spoke to CyclingNews on the eve of the race.

"We were quite happy after the crash that she didn't break anything but then the wound took a while to heal," Dekker says. "But she started training again right before Strade and we said we were going to skip it because it wouldn't be the best."

Now she's back, building toward Vuelta España Femenina as her main target, but ready to race in Belgium. "She's back, she's feeling good. Like I said, building up to La Vuelta, but she's ready to race on the level." On the team's firepower for the Classics block: "She'll be one of our big cards to play, together with Liane Lippert and Cat Ferguson maybe also, but more as a joker I think."

Last week's Ronde Van Brugge victory by Carys Lloyd has lifted the mood without dulling the ambition. "It kind of takes the pressure off, but also you come on Sunday and we had a bit of a shit race and you go home a little bit disappointed from that."

Dekker's assessment of where they stand: "I think with the line-up we have for Wednesday and also for Sunday, we're one of the strongest teams on the road."

"You might as well have just put my name on the trophy before the race started because I wasn't losing"

Dillon Corkery on a life that nearly went several other ways

Dillon Corkery is a 27-year-old neo-pro at Picnic PostNL. He is also a former near-Olympic gymnast, a bar worker who was legally pulling pints at age ten, and a man who nearly quit cycling to take over the family pub. Rouleur's interview with the Irishman reminds us how thin the margin is between making it and going home.

Growing up in Banteer, County Cork, Corkery won the national gymnastics championships five years in a row, coming within one step of Ireland's Olympic development program at age 12. Cycling found him via a physio's advice, and the results were immediate. "My first or second race was the national championships and I won the road race, criterium and TT. Each race I got better and I kept on winning. I think I only lost one race all season when I was 12. You might as well have just put my name on the trophy before the race started because I wasn't losing."

The domination faded as puberty arrived late. Years of laboring and pub shifts followed, but a move to a French amateur team in 2020 offered a reprieve. Living with teammates in an apartment, the days were spent riding bikes and playing Fortnite. It felt like a "genuine holiday," but the path wasn't linear. Covid interrupted, contracts failed to materialize, and Corkery returned home intending to quit.

The turning point was a phone call from Melvin Rullière, now a coach at Picnic PostNL. "He said, 'Of all the riders I've had, you'd be the biggest 'what if' if you don't just do one more year'." Corkery committed to one final season. It paid off: a sixth place at GP Denain at Pro level, where the winner was Matthew Brennan of Visma | Lease a Bike, changed everything. "I never doubted myself but I also never thought I'd maybe be in a position to win that race."

His agent Gary McQuaid's message before the Pays de la Loire Tour was blunt: "You're not young and if there's a moment where you've got to do it, it's today." Corkery backed it up with a third-place sprint finish.

Sam Bennett's advice from the roadside was simple: "Just get your foot in the door and people will see what you're capable of."

Now, his role model remains Michael Mørkøv. "Watching the way he could read a race and deliver a guy to the line was cool. He was class. And he was valued, and that to me is important." At 27, Corkery is ready to be the man who delivers others to the line.

"Jonas Vingegaard was scared of me"

Lenny Martinez on his reputation and riding his own race

Lenny Martinez arrived at the Bistrot Vélo show on Eurosport fresh off a second place at Volta a Catalunya. He has a reputation for tactical cynicism, built on moments like the sticky bidon incident at the Tour de France and a stage win at Critérium du Dauphiné where he attacked during an Enric Mas feed stop. He was asked about it.

"Honestly, I don't really care," Martinez said. "I don't really understand what people are saying sometimes. It's possible I disagree with some of the comments about me. I know it's normal, lots of people have opinions. When you watch on TV, it's different, you're not inside it, you're not in the race. I have nothing against those people, I'm not angry, I just don't always agree."

On being labeled French cycling's next Tour de France winner from a young age: "It never really bothered me, it never put too much pressure on me when people said I'd be the future Tour winner and all that. It's so far away. That's just how it is with the media and with people. I don't worry too much about my popularity. I just try to do the best I can every year, keep improving, enjoy myself on the bike. The rest is what it is."

The Paris-Nice stage win against Jonas Vingegaard brought its own satisfaction, specifically the moment before the sprint when Vingegaard stayed on his wheel and refused to commit. "It felt weird when he wouldn't come through. In my head, the fact that he's won the Tour and he's playing that game with me when I'm still nothing compared to him in terms of palmares — that maybe meant he was scared of me in the sprint."

🏆 THE SERGE BAGUET AWARD

Not awarded today

Wonder what The Serge Baguet Award is all about? Check it out here.

💬 QUICK QUOTES

"If I look at the BORA team now — that's the team performing best at the key moments of the classics. They're just missing a big team leader, someone capable of winning. And Remco Evenepoel is the man for the job. I know Remco and his father Patrick are watching us... Remco, you're in top form, I'm convinced of your abilities in one-day races. With your knowledge of the course — you train regularly on the roads of the Ronde van Vlaanderen — the BORA team needs you on Sunday." — Philippe Gilbert, RTL, addressing Remco Evenepoel directly on Belgian TV and even placing him in his top three favorites for the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

"After the Kemmelberg, you could see he never really went full gas again. When Mathieu is really riding at full gas, he pulls some funny faces. But he was barely breathing, so you could tell he had no intention of racing to the finish flat out." — Greg Van Avermaet, in the HLN Wielerpodcast, reading Mathieu van der Poel's body language at In Flanders Fields.

"A classics build-up is like a tanker. You can't suddenly steer it in a completely different direction." — Greg Van Avermaet, WielerFlits, on the different Ronde van Vlaanderen preparations of Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert.

"In his last two editions he got dropped on the Oude Kwaremont, but that won't be the case this year. After that he needs to sit in their wheels for a bit and then outsprint the two main favorites. That's how he can win his first Ronde van Vlaanderen." — Johan Museeuw, on Sporza, explaining how Wout van Aert can win this Sunday.

"If he were ever to leave, it would be for Uno-X." — Magnus Cort Nielsen, on Viaplay, suggesting Jonas Vingegaard would only consider one team if he left Visma | Lease a Bike.

"Mathieu never looks back. He rides away on the Paterberg, Stan is 3 or 4 seconds behind, he doesn't look back once. When you see Jonas ride, he still looks back while he's attacking. I was the same. When I watch my footage from Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, I rode 800 meters on the front and looked back 16 times. But Mathieu is so strong, he just rides his own tempo and knows: 'behind me they are suffering even more'." — Tiesj Benoot, on the Live Slow Ride Fast podcast, on the psychological difference between Mathieu van der Poel and other top riders.

"I was rooming with 19-year-old teammates who had their own mental coaches, their own nutritionist. They wouldn't be talking to me. They'd have their earphones on watching a mental rehearsal, a self-belief video. They're coming into the sport younger and more educated. It catapults the level up a lot higher." — Rachel Neylan, on the SBS Cycling Podcast, the former pro who retired in 2023 at age 41, on the generational shift in athlete preparation.

"His aggression is, in some ways, a little abnormal, because he should be far calmer, far more confident. Instead, he blows up in races over small details that should not matter at all. That tells you he is not at ease and that he doubts himself. Which is a shame, because he is a truly exceptional champion." — Cyrille Guimard, making a psychological assessment of Remco Evenepoel, on Cyclism'Actu TV,

That's it for today. See you tomorrow 👋

Jay