Anthony Turgis (26) has made a exceptional begin to the season. Tenth for Milan-San Remo, 2nd for Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne behind Mads Pedersen, ninth for Ghent-Wevelgem and eighth Wednesday for Across Flanders, the Ile-de-France, member of the Total Direct Energie staff, loves the classics. Behind Julian Alaphilippe, he represents one of the French probabilities for this a hundred and fifth version of the Ronde van Vlaanderen, additionally referred to as De Ronde or Tour of Flanders.
The Flandrian races are launched with the three-headed eagle as the favourite: Alaphilippe, Van Aert and Van der Poel. How to hope to have an opportunity in opposition to them?
Anthony Turgis They are all three very robust, however have completely different qualities. Van Aert is powerful on large sprints, Van der Poel is extra puncher on sprints when it’s essential have power, as for Julian, he has this capacity to place the gasoline on when there’s a slope. Sometimes they will bury themselves, as we noticed in Milan-San Remo. To shock them, it’s important to already be with them in the remaining and there, you possibly can hope to beat them. But that is nonetheless idea …
You appear to love these nice classics. Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, alas postponed… Why?
Anthony Turgis These are particular races, we don’t discover this environment elsewhere. On the Ronde, there are folks in every mountain. It’s a really tactical race, the place you all the time should be very properly positioned at the foot of the moguls. The roads are very slender, there is no such thing as a room for everybody. You should be in entrance in order to not be blocked and should exert an enormous effort on the exit to come back again. On Paris-Roubaix, the paths are wider, which leaves the chance, should you are not fairly in entrance, of having an opportunity to come back again to the exit or between two cobbled sectors as a result of they are spaced aside. But right here we go solely yearly.
In what state will we come out of the northern races?
Anthony Turgis We come out washed out. These are warrior races. The mountains, the cobbled sectors require much more focus than on a lambda race. You should know the way to put your wheels in the proper place in any other case an opponent can deport you to the aspect and also you fall. There actually is the next fee of threat. And as if that weren’t sufficient, at the exit of a cobbled sector or a mountain, it’s important to relaunch very laborious. And I’m not even speaking about the wind …
Having Niki Terpstra (winner of Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders) and Boasson Hagen (winner of Gand-Wevelgem) in his staff, is that a bonus?
Anthony Turgis It is particularly throughout briefings that they create us one thing. They know the place we needs to be positioned, the landmarks to not be missed. It helps rather a lot in the race as a result of you already know precisely the place you are going. And then if you get the peloton again on their wheels, aside from the respect they impose, they all the time do it at the proper time. All which means we save ourselves and that we may be current when the race will get carried away.
How did you put together for this season, the place thus far you are fairly often in the high 10?
Anthony Turgis Because of the pandemic, we had been solely in a position to meet sooner or later in December, and once more shortly and never collectively. We simply had an internship in January. Basically, that is one much less prep block. So, I ready myself earlier than the holidays. I took half in a number of cyclo-crosses to evaluate myself. When I arrived at the January camp, I knew roughly the place I used to be and what I nonetheless wanted to enhance earlier than the first races. Overall I believe my preparation was okay.
When you say “correct”, you are modest in view of your outcomes …
Anthony Turgis It’s true, the nearer we received to the races the extra I noticed that I used to be in good situation. The program that I established with the staff fits me properly. It has been nearly the identical for a number of years. I’ve benchmarks and I climb the stairs one after the other to reach in optimum form at the essential second.
