"I love it, it's like coming home."
Good morning,
These are today's quotes and interviews worth your time.
Stood out to me today: "Well, I'm not so sure about that, because Wout van Aert isn't starting. So is E3 Saxo Classic really that important anymore?"
¡Vamos!
🎤 INTERESTING INTERVIEWS
"Mathieu is phenomenal. He's the rider I would love to race against."
Tom Boonen on returning to Soudal Quick-Step at E3 Saxo Classic
Tom Boonen was back in a team car for the first time since his retirement in 2017, following a call from Soudal Quick-Step general manager Jurgen Foré. The setup was informal: no official role, just a seat alongside assistant sports director Niki Terpstra at the E3 Saxo Classic, a race Boonen won five times. "I don't have a role, I'm just here to watch the race," he told Daniel Benson. "I was in the team meeting yesterday as well, but Harelbeke doesn't have many secrets, and all the team meetings are the same for a race like this. I gave some good advice because I know these races very well. Most of the time, the real decisions are made in the run-up to the climbs and not on them." Then came the simpler answer: "I love it, it's like coming home."
The reunion is as much an audition as a visit. Boonen hasn't been absent from cycling entirely, working with the Wielerclub Wattage podcast, previously consulting with Lotto, and being involved with Classified. But this is different. "I didn't have a desire to come back," he said, "but Jurgen called me and he said 'you're a very important and historic guy for the team and would you like to come to the races a few times with us?' And I said, why not." He quickly ruled out a full-time sports director role: "No, no, no, I have no ambition for that. I don't want to be away from home 200 days a year anymore. I don't mind doing 50 days or a little bit more, but not a full schedule."
On the team's prospects, he was honest. For Flanders, he sees limits. "You're racing against Tadej and Mathieu. I don't think they have a leader at the same level." For Roubaix, though: "They have a very strong lineup and a long history, so let's hope they can get a result that they deserve there." Asked how he would have raced against Mathieu van der Poel, he didn't hesitate: "Ah, I'd beat him every day." Then, more seriously: "Mathieu is phenomenal. He's the rider I'd love to race against."
"I believe we will come close to beating her one day."
Nienke Veenhoven on Lorena Wiebes and her own ambitions
Nienke Veenhoven signed with Visma | Lease a Bike Women at 18, had a difficult first year, and has spent the seasons since steadily closing the gap between potential and results. She won her first professional race at the Baloise Ladies Tour last summer, followed it with a victory at the Tour de Gatineau in Canada, and the team has tied her down until 2028. Now 22, she is speaking plainly about where she is headed. "I believe in the future, when I am a few years older and bigger and stronger, and with a good team around me, we will come close to beating Lorena Wiebes one day," she told Rouleur. "That's also the goal, otherwise we're riding for second place and that's a bad thing."
She is candid about how hard the start was. Coming from a family with no cycling background, she arrived at the elite level undertrained. "Every week was really hard because all of the training sessions were new. Maybe in the beginning we did too much and suddenly I was in the biggest race of the world — Paris-Roubaix." That was her second race as a professional. "You're in the team with Marianne Vos — it's crazy!" A lot of DNFs followed in year one. The breakthrough, when it came, was about relief as much as joy. "All of the coaches and everyone else were saying that they believed in me," she said. "The day I won was more relief to show that I could do it — and also to my teammates that it was not for nothing that they believed in me."
She knows Lorena Wiebes from the track and studies her carefully. "In training we can talk about general things, I can ask her how she does things. But then in a race she really shows strong leadership towards her teammates. I have to learn how to be a better leader." This spring, the big Classics go to team leaders Marianne Vos and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, but Veenhoven is building her own program. In this interview with Rouleur ahead of the Ronde van Brugge, Veenhoven stated her aim to finish on the podium in Bruges — a target she successfully reached when she took third place two days ago. Now she looks ahead to tomorrow's In Flanders Fields.
"Based on my power numbers, I'm not sure I could turn pro in 2026."
Jasper Stuyven on a decade in the peloton, weight battles, and what's changed
HLN ran a feature putting Jasper Stuyven face to face with his 2016 self, and the answers were worth reading. On the racing environment, he was direct. "Positioning in the Classics has become harder, because the level has risen and the roads are still just as narrow," he told HLN. "It's now even more chaotic and hectic."
On just how much has changed: "Based on my power numbers, I'm not sure I could turn pro in 2026. Our entire development team is now hitting more watts per kilo than I do." Younger riders have the numbers, he said, but not always the racing brain. "In the races where reading the race and tactical judgment matter, they're completely lost because they can't position themselves at the front."
The interview also wandered into more personal territory. His first day at a Soudal Quick-Step training camp last December, he hit 89 kilograms on the scale — his highest ever. "The alarm bells went off immediately," he said, though he explained it partly by jet lag and water retention after long travel days. "I can share this now because since the altitude camp on the Teide in February, I'm back at my ideal spring weight."
He was honest about the mood swings that come with cutting weight too aggressively in previous years: "In the past, after long days of training, I sometimes ate too little, and then I really struggled when a teammate was allowed to eat more than me — and they certainly shouldn't rub it in."
He also reflected on where his career sits. A Monument on his palmarès, ten straight seasons at the top level of the Classics: he has learned to appreciate that. "I'm proud that I've consistently competed at a high level in the Classics for ten years. Not many riders can say that."
But he is not done. "I'd have been dissatisfied in 2016 if you'd told me this would be my palmarès ten years later. I thought I'd have won Roubaix or Flanders, or at least been on the podium." He paused. "It could still happen, but the window is narrowing."
🏆 THE SERGE BAGUET AWARD
Not awarded today
Wonder what The Serge Baguet Award is all about? Check it out here.
💬 QUICK QUOTES
"To be honest, personally with us, our radio was broken, so we didn't know anything. We knew there was a break of whoever the guy was, plus the original breakaway, plus Van der Poel, plus people coming back. So I really had no clue what was going on." — Matteo Trentin, speaking to CyclingNews on how the E3 Saxo Classic chaos was even harder to navigate without a working radio.
"I gave up, actually, because they were so close. But then I thought, if I wait now and they come back and it's a sprint, for sure, I'll come last in the group because I was on the limit. I think they also thought I gave up, and then I just tried one more time, seated, to go as fast as possible to the finish line, and I think that they doubted a little bit behind and then I could make it to the finish." — Mathieu van der Poel, speaking to CyclingNews on the moment he nearly gave up before winning his third straight E3 Saxo Classic.
"But then the cooperation just vanished. I thought: I'm not going to lay all my cards on the table here. I'd rather let Mathieu ride away than sprint for second place later. I'm certainly not angry with my fellow chasers. This is part of racing." — Florian Vermeersch, speaking to Sporza on the moment the chase group stopped working at E3 Saxo Classic.
"Was I surprised that Florian looked to me? A little bit, yes. But I had nothing left in my legs and was banking entirely on a podium finish." — Jonas Abrahamsen, as told to In de Leiderstrui, on why he didn't close the final 20-meter gap to Mathieu van der Poel at E3 Saxo Classic.
"I made some dumb choices. So I am pretty disappointed. I attacked on the Taaienberg, went full gas on the Boigneberg, was in the move with Pedersen on the Paterberg, then attacked again on the Oude Kwaremont and tried something again on the Karnemelkbeekstraat. That's a bit too much and in the end it amounts to nothing. I actually still had decent legs for the sprint, but I was too far back. I think all those efforts just wrecked my chances in the sprint." — Tim van Dijke's honest self-assessment to WielerFlits after E3 Saxo Classic.
"I was drinking in the descent and misjudged a corner. I went off the road and into the ravine. It was like one of those horrific crashes you see. I was lucky I could talk to the team car via my radio. I was far from the road and nobody knew I was there. I'm glad I was able to finish the stage. I'll still get checked over, but I think I'm OK." — Tom Pidcock, Het Nieuwsblad, on his crash into a ravine during yesterday's stage of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya.
"Look, the feeling wasn't super-super. But I've felt worse two days after a crash. My neck and back muscles were still stiff, and my hand is still a bit raw. That's annoying, but it doesn't stop me from racing hard." — Remco Evenepoel, speaking to Sporza on managing the physical effects of his own crash two days earlier at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya.
"My lungs were burning in the end because of the high altitude." — Jonas Vingegaard, speaking to Cycling Pro Net on finishing yesterday above 2,000 meters at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya.
"I had a good example in my own team: Sylvain Chavanel, a Frenchman. He was supposed to be the next big thing. Turned pro at twenty. He tried. He finished top ten once — but what did he actually win? In the end Sylvain was a one-day rider. Just as might turn out to be the case with Remco." — Patrick Lefevere, speaking to HLN.
"I was messaging Karl Vannieuwkerke in the car just yesterday. I said: 'Are you ready for tomorrow? Tomorrow the real Flemish races begin.' And he replies: 'Well, I'm not so sure about that, because Wout van Aert isn't starting. So is E3 Saxo Classic really that important anymore?'" — Johan Museeuw, revealing a text exchange with a prominent Belgian race commentator, in the Live Slow Ride Fast podcast.
"I don't know if I can say the name — I'm not gonna say the name because, anyway, it's not a huge rider, but it's a pretty good rider. Won already quite a lot of races. His twenty-minute power was 330 watts when he turned pro. Nine years later, his twenty-minute power is 400 watts for twenty minutes. 70 watts more. And now they did some research and he's at the level of peak Peter Sagan in 2016/17. And he almost doesn't win any races. That's how much it has changed." — Johan Bruyneel, in THEMOVE on how dramatically the performance baseline in professional cycling has risen.
That's it for today. See you tomorrow 👋
Jay