00:00 Pogacar mentioned you as one of his main rivals for the GC. Do you agree?
00:07 Honestly,
00:10 it's, I mean, you know, it's a really such a hard job in itself to
00:23 already being there and fighting and hopefully have a clear run
00:28 to be able to give your best, especially the first, the third week. The third week will be
00:33 important for me and yeah, yeah, hopefully I can really have a reach a high level in the
00:38 third week of the Giro and if I haven't lost too much time before that, then maybe I can
00:44 end up with something great. But, you know, Pogacar is already one level above the rest,
00:52 so I don't really want to focus too much on him in this Giro.
00:57 What I like the most about the Giro is probably the race, the way we can race it. I mean,
01:04 I expect to have really hard conditions during the third weeks and yeah, you know,
01:10 it's the kind of race where, yeah, hopefully you can turn things around with long red, longer,
01:19 long breakaway kind of sections with terrible weather and this is all this can be something
01:28 that you from the from inside the race you feel like it would be a terrible day. But I think
01:34 this is also why I came here because I feel that there is when you really have the will in the Giro
01:43 and I have good legs. It's a race that it's a bit less locked than other Grands Tour you can find
01:50 and if you really have the will to commit, you can have more opportunities here to be honest,
01:58 to really have an impact on the race. I know you've contemplated retirement and weighing that
02:05 up decision at the end of the year. I think you said you were going to decide in the summer.
02:08 So I'm assuming no decision has been taken, but I'm just wondering how you're feeling sort of
02:13 in terms of energy and morale at this point in your career, especially after the spring and that
02:18 result at the end? Yeah, thanks man. Very good question. I think the recent results give me a
02:27 massive boost in the motivation. I mean, I haven't changed anything, but we
02:37 just all the seasons so far was a bit displayed. I was really keen this winter to go back to the
02:45 same program I had in 2022 because I felt like I was really at my best level coming into the Giro
02:53 and the first part of the 2022 Giro. So yeah, for me, it was the main goal of the team this year to
03:01 try to replicate and make some adjustment to really be in the kind of shape I was
03:08 back then two years ago. And already getting some nice satisfaction with
03:17 how the shape was in Arles and then in Liege also makes me believe that I'm on the right path and
03:27 that I'm still really, really humble coming into this Giro. A lot can happen and I will
03:33 have to feel, I need to see how I feel in the mountains. Yeah, the main thing for me is really
03:40 to be really consistent and hopefully having this kind of flow going in the third week
03:48 to take opportunities to really be a major actor of the race. Looking ahead specifically at the
03:57 opening weekend, we've got two stages that are really difficult in and around Turin.
04:02 Has that affected how you prepared for the race for, I think it's the earliest summit
04:06 finish in many decades now and it should see possibly the GC form an order by Monday?
04:12 Yeah, absolutely. I think it will be important but you also have to put it into context. I mean,
04:20 okay, there will be for sure some differences in the GC. That is just the opening weekend and
04:25 yeah, as always, the Giro will be decided in the third week. I think we might see some
04:33 differences in the level of performance of the main GC guy in the first weekend but
04:39 I think it will be within a reasonable amount of time and so you have to be good there but it will
04:47 be, yeah, to make your race a success what really counts is to be really good in the third week.
04:55 The mountains classification can be a goal for you?
04:57 No, no, it's not a primary goal. I mean, you never know what can happen during the race.
05:05 She loses at some point tons of time then I will go in probably in full breakaway mode
05:13 but no, I mean, I want to try to find this little bit of space
05:24 during the race to play my cards maybe probably a bit before like Pogacar will do
05:32 because I know it will be hard to compete head to head with him on the final climb to be honest.
05:39 It is up to guys like me I think to try to decide the race in a bit of a different way.
05:48 I mean, I'm not in the full GC mode so I'm going to take the race day by day.
05:55 You can achieve a very good GC result in the Giro in a bit different way. I think we saw like with
06:02 Pinot last year what he did he was super valiant in the break gaining some time in some days.
06:08 So for me it's like I don't want to think about the next day I want to approach
06:15 yeah every day like a bit like a classic because we also have some big target and some
06:21 flat stages here. So you know I really want to take also every mountain stage like it's an
06:29 opportunity to win and not thinking about really gaining time or you know saving for the for the
06:35 next day. I think for me it is what could bring the best GC so I don't think too much about also
06:42 the time trial I will just give my best on these days and we'll see we'll see where I get.
06:50 Just to follow up on what you said about replicating the preparation from 2022 could
06:56 you just explain a bit more about what that involved and maybe how that was different
07:00 to previous years or even 2023? Yeah trying to replicate means a lot of
07:08 sacrifices in the early season like what works really well for me is to accumulate two long
07:16 altitude camps in less than three months so we really did that in a good way and also to
07:25 not putting too much of focus in the first races of the season. I think that's why when you really
07:34 want to be good and fresh going into May and all the way into Rome I think it's important to really
07:42 manage your energy so you don't have to have big expectations for the early season. Just putting
07:48 the miles in doing the good work in altitude and I was happy to see I was on track when I saw my
07:55 level in the last period of racing so yeah for me like I knew going into 2024 the period will
08:06 really matter is from two of the Alps in the world to the end of the Giro so that's a bit of a
08:12 different approach because when you want to go hard in the Tour you have more one week stage race
08:19 in the first part of the season then you can afford to have a good break and recover and do
08:25 a steady build up to going into June. Now it's a bit different because with the Giro coming early
08:34 May you can't really rest in the first part of the season so it's important to manage your energy
08:43 through this period. Tell us something about your young teammates because yourself you probably
08:51 didn't come to the Giro early enough in your career. You did very well at the Tour of Turkey
08:57 and some of your young teammates did well in Turkey last week, Tobias Lund and you would have
09:03 probably mentored Max Poul if he was at the Giro. What can we expect from this young group of DSM?
09:14 I think I'm really impressed by how fast and how good they are growing.
09:20 I think they've been really in the right environment. The team is sending them
09:27 after a good block of preparation to the right races to develop, getting the confidence from
09:35 having some results. So yeah for me it's a shame that we missed Max here because it would have been
09:44 a big advantage to have two guys in the deep final on the mountain stage. Even if I truly believe
09:51 the climbing group here to support me, Max also I think would have had his say in the GC.
10:00 But yeah so for me it's also like we haven't built a team here to go 100% for me in the GC.
10:12 We want to achieve some stage wins in the sprint with Fabio and Tobi will be there to support and
10:18 maybe also have his own opportunity. And also we'll target the mountain stages and I'm here to
10:24 try to also have the right impact on the group to help everyone achieving these goals. So it's not
10:34 like we are not focused on the GC 100%.
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