I worked at a petrol station on the motorway re-fueling cars as a 19-year-old guy. Some days I would start at 4am until 12pm. Other days would start at 3pm until midnight. It was difficult working hours so I didn’t have a good rhythm of sleep. The good thing is I had a boss who gave me days off for racing.
During the summer I had a really hard period of training where I was doing 30 hours a week. At the same time, I had a lot of work to do. There were two weeks where I was working 60 hours and training 30 hours. That was some crazy weeks of my life. I was so tired. I was waking up at 8am to do 6 hours of training then rushing home to grab a shower, ride my bike to the petrol station and work into the night.
I didn’t really have a good level on the bike at the races in Denmark because all I was doing was training and not racing enough. I also had a lot of problems with my weight as it was difficult to eat the right things at the petrol station. I was just eating hot dogs and candy all the time.
Throughout this time, my coach, Marc believed in me. He raced in Italy when he was young and had a connection to a local team there, General Store – Bottoli Zardini. The big reason I moved to Italy this year was to focus on cycling 100%.
Some young guys find it hard to move away from home, but it was actually easy for me to move because working and cycling in Denmark at the same time was so hard.
In Italy, I was in an environment where I could focus. Of course, there were some tough periods where my new team didn’t believe in me. In March I was sick with influenza and also had a virus in my stomach which meant I couldn’t train for some weeks. That was hard to come back from. I got into my old patterns where I was eating bad stuff…especially during the periods I couldn’t ride the bike. It meant I gained weight again. I had the feeling they stopped believing in me and in the summer they said I should move home. In Italy, the culture is you have to be skinny to be a good cyclist. It doesn’t matter how much you train, you just have to be skinny. At the training camp they would only feed us salad after hard rides. Then at dinner, we could get one piece of meat.
But moving home was not an option. I thought to myself, the only thing I have to do in Italy is ride the bike and eat healthily. That’s really easy compared to what I had to do back home in Denmark. After that, I continued doing what I knew was right and the results started to come. After my first victory, it was just, BOOM!! The victories kept coming. The team started believing in me again.
After my fifth victory, I talked to Manuel Quinziato. I thought to myself I’ve heard this name before. He was interested in becoming my agent and helping me. We talked and I could just see he was an awesome guy and immediately became my manager. Having a successful former professional rider like him have such massive faith in me was pretty crazy. He told me I would go pro for sure. Lotto-Soudal was looking for a Danish guy for 2019. He told them about me and they were very interested. I couldn’t believe it. We still had to sign the contract which took a lot of time because I still had to do medical checks and tests with their trainer. During this period, I kept thinking, is this really true?
View this post on InstagramCourse de la Paix and a lot of pulling i done. Next up is Giro d’Italia U23 💣 📷:cycling.photography
It was the biggest dream coming true. I was going to be a professional cyclist. When the press release went out, I started relaxing. I could tell everyone I was going pro. Everyone in Denmark knew me as the overweight guy pulling in the front. It was great to show them how much hard work I’ve put in and what a different rider I am now.
I’d like to give a massive shoutout to my coach who has been working with me since the start of my under 23 years. He always believed in me. This year, he has been not only my coach but my mental coach, my nutritionist and my friend. He is a big factor in me turning pro. Thanks Marc!
Photos: Italian Cycling Federation
