"If I'm 1% off, Tadej will be gone"
Good morning,
These are today's quotes and interviews worth your time.
Stood out to me today: "Winning Sanremo would mean more to me than breaking the record of six Tour de France titles. Because in my eyes, the difference between zero and one is bigger than the difference between four and five."
¡Vamos!
🎤 INTERESTING INTERVIEWS
“We need to fight for our sport”
Demi Vollering on winning, social media, and taking a leading role in women's cycling
Demi Vollering has 58 career wins, a Nike partnership, and the world number-one ranking. She is also, by her own account, still fighting. "In women's sport, we know we still need to fight for our position," she told Cycling Weekly. "We all know where we came from. This is so fresh in our minds, so we need to fight for our sport. We also know by doing that we can help other women."
On why she speaks out where others don't, she is matter-of-fact: "For men it's a bit different. Their sport has been really successful and well-watched for years, so they already have a stable place." On women's cycling specifically: "For women, it's more natural to have a mum figure around to learn from."
The conviction goes deeper than platform strategy. At La Vuelta Femenina last year, she dedicated a stage win to people struggling with their mental health. Asked what motivated it, her voice briefly wavered: "That day I was thinking of a person close to me who was having a really hard time, so I just wanted to let people know that those struggling already have the strength inside them to get out and to find a place where they can get better." On social media's role in amplifying those pressures: "We see so much from the internet nowadays of how a perfect life should look, and we can make ourselves crazy about it. Sometimes the mind is just too strong. This can get worse and worse, not only with depression but even worse mental states. I know just by saying it, it can mean a lot to people."
This year Vollering is targeting the Giro-Tour double. She frames the Giro's calendar shift as a genuine opportunity, not a consolation prize. "The Tour is always my biggest goal and the Giro was not in the best place in the calendar before. In that period I always wanted to go on an altitude camp, but now it's moved it's a good reason to go there." On this year's Tour, which includes a 21km time trial, she is measured: "The nicest thing about a time trial is that you can only focus on yourself, and what the rest do doesn't influence your results." And on what she ultimately wants: "I really want to play a part in giving women's sport a little push into a better position, into a good place."
“That win was such a surprise - I had already said goodbye to my chances”
Edward Theuns on his Bredene Koksijde Classic victory, his son, and the decision to fully commit to riding for Jonathan Milan
Edward Theuns starts tomorrow's Bredene Koksijde Classic with race number one on his back. Twelve months ago, the Lidl-Trek veteran won the race in a manner that surprised even himself. The transition to full domestique had been deliberate. "Since Jonathan Milan joined our team in 2024, I decided for myself to give that 100% commitment," he told WielerFlits. "Before that, in smaller races I still got my own chance. Now I prefer to ride every race with Milan to then find success there." Theuns had accepted that chapter was closed. Which made what happened next stranger still.
"The decision to ride more in service was almost 100%, I had almost no more chance for myself. It's a bit funny that exactly at the moment you mentally make that click, that right at that moment a chance presents itself and you can finish it off. That is something very unique." He is clear about how small the odds were: "The odds it would work out were very small. Everything came together on that day in the race."
What gave the win its particular weight was who was watching. "My little son regularly started asking when I was going to win again. That played into it too. Life as a rider is sometimes not simple and puts a lot of pressure on the surroundings of the riders. And I think this is often underestimated a bit by the outside world. And that makes it all the more beautiful when you can have success and the sacrifices are actually worth it."
“If I'm 1% off, Tadej will be gone”
Mathieu van der Poel on his form, the Cipressa, and what Pogačar has changed at Milan-San Remo
Mathieu van der Poel goes into Saturday's Milan-San Remo as a two-time defending champion with, by most accounts in the peloton, his best form ever. He won't go that far himself. "That is always a difficult question," he said to CyclingNews. "I think I'm simply at a very good level, but to say right now that I'm in the best shape of my life... I don't know. But I'm definitely very happy with it."
On his Tirreno Adriatico preparation: "At Tirreno I was looking for that extra hardness you only get at races and when going all out to win a race. It's very difficult for me to simulate that in training and Tirreno has always worked for me as final preparation."
On Saturday's tactics, Van der Poel is precise about where the race will be decided. He knows Pogačar will attack on the Cipressa, possibly harder than last year. "I expect more or less the same scenario as in previous years. Last year Tadej came very close. What they did last year is, in my opinion, not something that is possible every year. We had the perfect wind on the Cipressa and also to get to the Poggio. If it's a headwind, I think it's a different story." The margin he is working with is razor-thin. "Last year he was already very close to getting a gap. If I'm 1% off, Tadej will be gone on the Cipressa."
He is generous about what Pogačar has done to the race, and careful about what that generosity communicates. "In the past, you shouldn't have even thought about attacking on the Cipressa, but Tadej and UAE have changed that, making Milan-San Remo a far harder but more spectacular race." The final line lands like both a compliment and a warning: "It's only a matter of time before he wins that race."
“Better to be a cyclist”
Filippo Ganna on his father, the lake, Monument ambitions, and why he can't yet build his Eiffel Tower Lego
Filippo Ganna could have been a watersports athlete. His mother was a waterskier, his father represented Italy in sprint canoeing at the Los Angeles Olympics. The hereditary logic was there. Then again: "I like water to take a shower, but that's it," Ganna told Rouleur. "If I go to swim, I like it until I see it's all dark underneath and then I don't feel comfortable. Last summer my girlfriend had a party by the river and there was a platform in the water. I couldn't jump off it because I was fucking scared." Cycling it was.
The relationship with his father Marco runs through the whole interview. Marco competed at the 1984 Olympics, rarely talks about it, and prefers the lessons over the trophies. "He did sports during the Iron Curtain era and he used to race a lot in Germany when the Berlin Wall was still up. He would meet a lot of guys from the other side of the Wall and he explained to me how much sports can connect people." It was Marco who told a teenage Ganna, falling behind at school due to racing, to make a decision: "It's like a train. If you jump on the train now, maybe you can stay on it for a long trip. But if you don't jump on it now, you'll lose the moment and then what do you do? Nothing." Ganna's verdict: "I think the resilience I have in sport came from my father."
Two things remain missing from an otherwise near-complete palmarès: a Monument win and a Tour de France stage. This spring he goes after the first of those. "I would like to win just one of them, just one and I'll be really happy. For me, I have the feeling that Roubaix is like Sanremo for Tadej. I try every time but it never comes off."
On Remco Evenepoel's threat to the Hour Record, Ganna is unbothered: "If he takes it off me, maybe in the future I will try to take it back."
🏆 THE SERGE BAGUET AWARD
“Primož Roglič — no races in May, June, and July. No races. He's gonna race until April, and then no more races until the start of the Vuelta. That's ridiculous. I mean, his salary is substantial, very substantial. And for an employer to allow one of your star riders to not race for three months, that's a big gamble, man. A huge gamble.”
— Johan Bruyneel in THEMOVE, on Roglic's announcement he may not race from May through July.
Wonder what The Serge Baguet Award is all about? Check it out here.
💬 QUICK QUOTES
“Honestly, it wasn't the plan to ride Sanremo, but the doctor is 100 percent convinced that I can race again.” — Mads Pedersen in Het Nieuwsblad, announcing he will start Milan-San Remo after his wrist fracture.
“It's been two crazy days.” — Alec Segaert in Het Nieuwsblad, after holding off the peloton to win GP Denain, one day after being caught just before the finish line.
“Winning Sanremo would mean more to me than breaking the record of six Tour de France titles. Because in my eyes, the difference between zero and one is greater than the difference between four and five.” — Tadej Pogačar in La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“He always starts the Cipressa very fast and I think the ideal thing is to start almost from a standstill, more slowly, and then accelerate. It's in that small surge that a group can break, because if they follow his wheel already at full speed like these past years... it's something I also warned Matxin about.” — Oscar Freire in AS, suggesting a different Cipressa approach for Pogačar to win Milan-San Remo.
“If it's to take him to the Tour de France and then he's burned out... At 19, if he comes up against Pogačar and finishes 10 minutes behind, it might be better to go and test himself in another race and if he went to the Giro d'Italia, if he found himself against Jonas Vingegaard, it would give an idea of his abilities.” — Bernard Hinault in RMC, on why Seixas should consider riding the Giro rather than the Tour this year.
“I'm facing a long break, one that is necessary to prevent the rest of my career from being put at risk.” — Gianmarco Garofoli on Instagram, announcing a knee injury will keep him out for an extended period.
“I can't reveal our tactics, but I'm not giving away any big secrets when I say my role involves guiding Tadej and the climbers into a good position over the first Capi and towards the foot of the Cipressa. After that, it's up to our climbing train to fly.” — Florian Vermeersch in HLN, on his role at Milan-San Remo for UAE.
That's it for today. See you tomorrow 👋
Jay