When I’m suffering up a climb, I think about…

1. The hardest race I’ve ever done….
Tour of Flanders in 2013. As a rider of Topsport Vlaanderen, I was in the early break that day. In the final I was the only rider left and with 25km to go, the peloton caught me. When my sports director, Walter Planckaert and the Belgian Minister of Sport, Filip Muyters, congratulated me with my performance that day, I told them that they could leave me and start following the peloton into the final, because I was completely empty. But then my sports director told me he would stay with me, because there was no single rider from our team left in the peloton, I was the only one still in the race! From this hard race I learnt a lot and I still use this experience in my races.

2….is the funniest rider on the team.

I always like to hang out with the young, new riders in the team. Last year we had Truls Korsaeth in the team, a Norwegian rider, a crazy and funny guy. For example, he forgot his normal pants at his first race, Tour Down Under. So, he walked in his shorts through the streets of Adelaide. And this year we have Jonas Gregaard, a funny guy, as we pranked him during his first training camp with us. We put the cranks at the same place on both sides of the bike, but he could appreciate it and we had a good laugh.

3. My pre-race routine is to…
Do easy! Haha, but really, I like to take it easy. You will never see me on the first row at the start area. It’s always a challenge to leave as late as possible from the bus, and still be in time for the race start, haha.

when @LaurensDeVreese goes to work… 😂 @DwarsdrVlaander pic.twitter.com/rqP4uuapYX

— kristof ramon (@kristoframon) March 29, 2018

4. The funniest conversation I’ve had in the middle of a race was with…
Gijs Van Hoecke (Team CCC now), when I taught him some Russian words that I learnt during my years at Astana Pro Team!

5. When I’m suffering up a climb, I think about…
The downhill!

6. My first road bike was a… 
Easton Bike.