It was my time

Years ago, I believed I could win a Grand Tour stage.

But not this year.

I’ll tell you why. When I did my first Grand Tour in 2012, I finished 5^th after a long breakaway during stage 5 of the Giro. I was aware that I wasn’t a big race winner but with a perfect day and loads of luck, I was convinced one day I could win a stage.

Unfortunately, after that Giro I was left out of the lineup for the Grand Tours until the Tour de France in 2016. In that Tour I was in a couple of breakaways but nothing more.

I also got to do the Vuelta that year. I went from not doing any Grand Tours for four years to doing two in one year. I had two top ten’s in the Vuelta. At that point it was clear to me that I am not going to win anything in my career.

I was okay with that. As long as you have leaders who are able to score results, it is a pleasure for me to work for them.

So, my win in the Giro this year was a surprise to many, but I think it was an even bigger surprise to me.

I wasn’t sure I would even have any chances because we had such big names in the team at the race, riders like Ackermann, Majka and Formolo.

And, in case I found myself up in the front, I knew I had already spent a lot of kilometres with my face in the wind working for our sprinter during the flat stages, my legs couldn’t be as fresh as other competitors.

It was a surprise to me to have the chance to go for a result and I was even more surprised to have the legs to hang with best riders in that breakaway in stage 12 and then to finish the job.

What made my victory in the Giro even sweeter is that I was the first rider in the history of the team to get a top 10 result in a Grand Tour way back in 2012. That’s when things started going for us.

After I got 5^th place in the 6^th stage, Daniel Schorn scored another 5^th in a bunch sprint, Bartosz Huzarski was 2^nd behind Purito Rodriguez in Assisi and Jan Barta was 2^nd at the end of a mountains stage in Cervinia.

I thought that result of mine back then could be the first of many, but I was wrong. Through the years I focused riding for others. I haven’t looked for personal results, especially not in this year’s Giro.

Scoring my first victory after so many years working for the same team was special. The staff members were really happy, maybe happier than me.

My job on the team is a helper who can be used on different fronts. You can see me mostly working in the front of the peloton chasing back breakaways in order to finish the race with a bunch sprint, but you can see me in harder races as well, like working in key moments between Cipressa and Poggio in Milan-Sanremo or during the Ardennes Classics in Liege.

If necessary, I’m in the mix and help in the finals as well. I always adapt to the situation.

I don’t mind working sacrificially for the team because I’ve learnt many life lessons here.

I first met team manager Ralph Denk in September 2009. In 2010 I had my first season with him in Team NetApp when the team was still at Continental level.

After the 2015 season I actually thought I was going to end my career but I finally managed to sign a new contract in the second half of October. That is quite late.

9 years later after meeting Ralph, I am still here with the same team. One of my idols in sport is Javier Zanetti, captain of FC Inter, who has spent almost his whole career in the same team. Maybe there is something connected to it hehe 🙂

There is another lesson I learnt on the team that has made me better.

During the seasons 2010-11 I lived in Belgium, close to the German border. I was used to living in a team house since I was a junior and that wasn’t a problem, but I had no big mountains around and I didn’t know how to train. I was lost, felt sad most of the time and gained a lot of weight and I believe it set me back in my career.

That period burnt my brain. I was not happy that it happened but I am okay with it now.

I don’t take what I have today for granted. Here I have to mention Peter Sagan. We haven’t raced together that much and we don’t have any contact when we are not together with the team but he has unintentionally helped me to improve. He has pushed me to go over my limits.

When the team got the World Tour license in 2017, Peto was in the rainbow jersey and I felt the responsibility of working for him. If my job was to be with at a certain point of a race or if I had to pull with him on my wheel towards the final of a race, there was no option but to be the best I can be.

Even if I was on the limit, I knew that the World Champion was on my wheel and I couldn’t give up. That is why my mind strength increased and consequently my body strength did too.

Long after I retire, these are the moments I will take with me forever. And for that I have to thank BORA – hansgrohe. It’s not very common for riders to stay almost their whole career with the same team.