Episode #4

While I'm still enjoying the warmth in Namibia and getting ready for this afternoon's race, I hear that everyone in my home country is gearing up for the snow and cold that will be knocking on the door this weekend. Fortunately, FUTURUM has a wide selection of products to keep you warm and dry :-). Good luck and enjoy the winter weather!

In recent weeks, during my training camp in Namibia, I have been in contact with a talented young rider who saw through STRAVA that I am training here. He asked me if he could join me on one of my trainings, so he can learn from my experience etc. I was delighted that he contacted me and therefore quickly madean appointment with him to train together. Soon after that we did a nice endurance training together and during that ride we got to know each other a little better. It turns out that he is not just a young, talented rider. Alex Miller, his name, is the current national MTB champion of Namibia and this year he will be joining the professional "international Team Trek Vaude powered by Ötztal"!
Alex is also, like me, preparing for the biggest sporting event in the world. The Olympic Games in Tokyo later this year! What a great company to have. Alex quickly mentioned that local races are being organized and that it might be possible for me to participate. So, through Alex, it became possible that I could participate in a local race of about 110km, but the best will come later today (Friday 05feb). Through Alex, we managed to get me to participate in the national TT championships! Time trial, the discipline where I've lost my heart to and where I can best benefit from my skills and motivation. Great! In the next episode I will include a race report

If I had to explain to you where my love for time trial comes from, I'd have to takeyou back to the period in my cycling career when I didn't do time trial at all. During the races back then, my goal was always to arrive solo. I thought to myself; what if I break away, ride faster than the peloton and arrive solo....? So I made it a goal every race. Arrive solo. For example during the training races in Amsterdam. If the peloton rides 48km/h, I ride 50km/h. When they start riding 46km/h, I ride 47km/h. A prelude to my love of time trial of course, but at the time I was not at all concerned with my position on the bike and the equipment etc.This came later when I heard that I had a chance to participate in the Olympics inRio. I would have to do two disciplines there and time trial was one of them..... SoI started super motivated to perfect my time trials, bike position, equipment and everything else. The fight against yourself,
I love it! During my training sessions I also prefer to ride alone and then most of the training sessions are pretty intense as well. I see riders like Niki Terpstra doing the same thing regularly and we noticed this often enough when he came to train with us on the track. Immediately it was full speed ahead and the level went up considerably. Incredible! My favorite time trial in competition is still the time trial in which I became world champion in Italy in 2018. A great time trial on a hilly course and with a climb of about 2.5 kilometers. Normally you suffer big time during a time trial, but during this race I enjoyed every single bit of it!

When people ask me if I have a certain pro that I see as an example, I always reply that I don't just look at one rider. I'm analyzing races from most of the top riders and look in particular at the new product technologies which they are using. Riders like Filippo Ganna, Victor Campenaerts, Tom Dumoulin, etc. Where the first to seem to use more and more special equipment, I noticed that Tom Dumoulin isn't always doing this so quickly. Tom, on the other hand, is master in maintaining speed in tricky corners etc, so that's helpful for me as well. For the sport is a big miss that he won't be around at the races for some time. Let's hopeI will see him back again during one of the National TT Championships in the Netherlands!
Ok, now I need switch my focus to the race of this afternoon. Hope to see you back for episode #5!

Sunny greetings,

Daniel

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