My attempt with English B level, hf.
Is the worst consequence of winning the Tour a much higher number of interviews you have to do?
I'm running out of fingers to be able to count them. It’s kind of a nuisance, but it’s part of every sport. The sooner you accept this and get used to the role, the easier it is for you.
You came home this week, where exactly are you?
Urška and I arrived to some cold weather. It's a little too hot in Monaco, we're more used to getting a little cold for the end of the season. At the moment we are in Styria, where it is a little sunnier.
You grew up on Klanec pri Komendi, considering that you are a top cyclist, the word klanec (=slope) kept you.
My brother and I always joked that we lived on a slope, we also had other unfunny jokes. Now everyone associates the word slope with my successes and good cycling climbs. I don't look at it too much.
The ascent, which is quite close to Klanec, Krvavec, means a lot to you.
It’s not a pass because the road doesn’t go over to the other side, so you have to go back the same way. This is really one of my favorite slopes for both training and a beautiful view.
The season is barely over, preparations for the new season will begin soon. How long do top cyclists take a vacation completely without a bike?
This varies from competitor to competitor. Some take virtually no vacation without a bike as they have to be active all the time. Urška and I are pretty close to that. We took six days without a bike this year when we were in Dubai. But some also take three to four weeks when they are completely without a bike and start a new season like that. I like to be active, even during the off-season, otherwise the shock is too great when we start full training again.
Speaking of rest, after the end of the Tour, your coach San Millan revealed that you were already in such top form in May that he asked you to take a week off and leave the bike aside. Did you obey him?
I didn’t leave the bike completely alone. I went on an active vacation to Bovec, where I had a bicycle with me. Urška and I took a walk, we drove up and down a little, but really nothing excessive. So much so that both body and head rested. I wasn't completely without a bike, if I was then I don't know what I would do with myself all day.
During quarantine, there were quite a few interesting challenges among cyclists, such as everesting, in which the goal was to overcome a total altitude of 8848 meters, as measured by the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest.
This challenge has really been very popular this year, both on platforms and on the roads. Both are very difficult, you manage to do it faster on the trainer. I'm not going to do that yet because I don't see much point in it. It doesn’t fit my type of training, I have no intention of doing this challenge at the moment. Without a doubt, it was interesting to observe the time differences between the riders.
The pandemic caught you in the Race of the United Arab Emirates, when you just got a mountain stage, and after the race ended prematurely, you won second place. For a long time it was not clear in what form the season would be carried out, if at all. But given all the preparations you’ve made, is there any hint that you believed the Tour would be carried out?
At first, we didn’t even know how long we were going to stay locked up in that hotel room when the pandemic broke out. At first we hoped to be able to race as early as April, but there was less and less hope. In the meantime, there was a period in which we didn't know if we would be able to do any race at all. Teams started cutting salaries, it was a whole "casino". We were then told that the season would start in August. We were getting ready for the races to really go out. In the meantime, you have to train and have some goals, so we believed and prepared for the races at full speed. We can be happy with the number of races that were eventually completed.
Including the Tour, which brought so much to Slovenian cycling. It is still an unforgettable TT that brought you the ultimate victory. Reader Mitja asks you if you had any special speech or motivation, did you perhaps think of your girlfriend?
Yes, I often think of my girlfriend. When it’s really hard for me, I motivate myself best by counting down the kilometers to the finish line. Everyone has to find their motive, I think what works for me is the mentioned countdown. Many times I really thought of Urška, especially when the stages are really long.
But how did you tackle this countdown on the TT, on which you still drove without a computer?
In fact, we knew the route very well, we knew that the first 30 kilometers would be flat, and the last six kilometers was a really difficult climb. It was necessary to go full speed, it was the last real stage on the Tour, it was necessary to go to the limit to the best of our ability. The first key move was that we had already decided to change the bike before the preparations. I decided to have only one sprocket on the wheel for the TT, I chose the rims and with what transmissions I will drive the flat part. In this part of the route I had a meter on which I observed my developed Watts, I was not allowed to swing too much, even though it was a supposedly flat, we still climbed and descended a bit. But when we changed bikes, I knew the slope was killer. The climb was really steep, I told the mechanic to remove everything, the weight of the bike was optimal, I had no distractions. If I drove badly, I might be even more worried, maybe I would go too far into the red. I went by my feeling. I trained a lot, I knew my abilities, so I decided not to use the computer for the last six kilometers.
That was probably somewhat decided already at the Slovenian time trial championships?
There, we roughly started thinking about the Tour. For me, it was a good workout to change bikes. We got our first feelings, although we changed the exact opposite at the time - we went from a road bike to a TT. The team and I prepared well for the Tour.
Reader David is interested in what weight you had on the Tour. You have had the same weight stated on Strava for several years. This figure is quite interesting for those who like to calculate the developed power in difficult slopes.
There are always masters on Twitter who quickly calculate everything. It’s no secret, in the first week of the Tour my weight was around 65.5 kg, and in the last week I weighed around 66 or a bit more. The body retains little water because the effort is so severe. This year my weight fluctuated much less than last year on the Vuelta.
You post a lot of information on Strava yourself, which always gives me the association that this is your answer to doping questions. What is it like to compete in a sport where top riders pay in advance for the sins of their fathers (whether you’re clean or not, every winner wonders if he’s really fair)?
It’s a really awkward topic. Just last week, I was watching a new documentary about Armstrong. I’ve found out why people don’t really trust us. When the stories around Armstrong and Pantani were happening, I wasn’t old enough yet to realize what it was all about. People find it hard to forget, it’s been a really long time. At first, both were believed, followed by Floyd Landis, Contador also had problems with that. I understand that people do not trust us. But it's a really nice sport.
In an interview with Marca, you said that you had mixed feelings when you beat Primož Roglič. When have you first heared of him?
After his fall, when he needed the bike to regenerate. He was immediately good, he was only getting better every year. I personally liked him as a cyclist, then he went to Jumbo Vismo, he immediately started winning, he immediately got a TT on the Giro. I wished I could be as good as he was someday. He opened the door wide to Slovenian cycling. I really respect him. In the end, we raced against each other, each for his own team. That's right. Everyone wished well to Primož to win the Tour, but in the end it turned out that way. It ended the way it did. In the end, I had really mixed feelings. When he crossed the finish line and I saw his expression on his face. That is the sport.
You and Primož are the bearers of the Slovenian cycling renaissance. They won three of the last four grand tours. How do you observe this rebirth from the first line?
Slovenian cyclists were viewed a little worse in the past. They were taken as if they were not too welcome on the World Tour. Brajkovič, Valjavec, Hauptman and Hvastija made good results, they showed that they can race. Roglič then set Slovenia very high. I hope that it will be easier for our younger riders to transfer to the World Tour, that it will be easier to accept and treat them in the same way as e.g. Italians, Spaniards or French.
The red thread of this season are the extremes. What do you think of the word extreme?
It was a really extreme season! This year's results were really good, but I don't think only of myself and Primož. Everyone who was in the world series was part of the big story. We made a big leap at the World Championships and one-day classics. It was a really extreme season.
You mentioned the World Cup, there you really showed national team progress, it was clear that you had several scenarios ready. One was also your attack in the penultimate round. Did you believe at that moment that you could get to the finish line on your own?
It was a really tough race. You have less power and energy each round. I didn’t feel super good, but good enough. For it to be a good escape, of course I would have liked someone from another country to join me, which would make it easier for me and harder for those in the main. In the end, no one dared to go with me that far from the finish line. There were no radios, so I didn’t know what was going on. I knew I wasn’t going to make it to the finish line, I wanted to last as long as possible, with that I wanted to make the race harder. The Belgians were so strong that they almost easily caught me.
You differ from the last few winners of the Tour in that you have quite pronounced ambitions in the biggest one-day races. Your disappointment at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race was clear, where you were left without a fight for a possible victory due to the Alaphilippe maneuver.
I really like one-day races, maybe even more than three-week ones. There you know you will suffer for 23 days. A one-day race, however, you know will go one day to the fullest, with more than six hours of racing ahead of you. I have these ambitions to prove myself in these races as well. I drove the Liege for the first time last year, it was a really long race for me. I got 18th place, which made me really happy. I could even reach victory this year. Unfortunately, Alaphilippe was too nervous. He has been making mistakes and stupid things for the last 15km. I could have won too, in the end I had to brake in the sprint because Marc Hirschi almost kicked me off the bike. In the end, third place was great anyway.
Do you talk to cyclists about such moves in such cases?
No, I haven't had a chance to talk to Alaphilippe. He immediately went to the press and to the stage for the winners. I myself went to the bus, when I found out I was third, I went back to the stage and Alaphilippe was gone. Even if I met him, I wouldn’t talk about it. He knows he made a mistake, I won’t be smart to the world champion telling him he messed up.
He was similarly careless a few days later when he fell in the Race of Flanders. There was also some bad luck involed in that situation. This year's season produced some really bad falls. There is a lot of talk about safety all the time. How well is security taken care of?
I know the organizers are trying. We have a CPA community that cares about our security. Accidents often occur, the circumstances are different. In Poland, the fences could certainly be better placed, they did't have to place the finish line on a downhill. Even my mom says the finish could always be uphill. The organizers want to do a show, but it’s not always successful. Cyclists have to be careful themselves, we know what awaits us, we have to be careful all the time.
Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert fought for victory in the above-mentioned Race of Flanders. The two riders shared the last six titles of the world cyclocross champion. This is not a completely unknown discipline for you, you were the national champion two years ago. Are you still training this discipline?
Too little. Sometimes in the winter I drive around, do a technical exercise. It’s a discipline where you have to be just as committed as you are on the road. If you want to race globally with van der Poel and van Aert, you have to be a keen cyclocross rider, you have to be a talent, you have to train every day. If only a few more races were possible in Slovenia, but there aren't any due to covid. Otherwise, it is a very interesting discipline. I would like it to develop a little more here. We know that the level in our country is not even close to that in Belgium.
Toni Gruden asks you, when will you be competing in two three-week races in one season?
This could happen as early as next year with a combination of Giro and Vuelta, but in our team it’s a little different. We have a sponsor of the UAE, for whom the Tour is the most important, followed by their home race UAE Tour. They want the best riders in these races. We’ll see how we decide together. In the future, there will definitely be some double grand tours.
But it is probably clear that Tour is the goal for next year?
I don't know exactly yet. Since I won this year, it would definitely be fine to drive with number one on the back next year.
Due to a really remarkable start to your career in three-week races, many fans have already thought that you can become a real collector of victories and become part of the historical elite. What do you think about that?
You never know, I may fall in training tomorrow and break something. It is necessary to go from day to day. Of course, goals must be set. But I dare not think too much about it. I’m motivated for years to come, I want to prove myself, but you never know when a bad season may come. Anything can happen and it takes away your desires and goals. Care must be taken in this.
There is a lot of talk about your ability to regenerate. How much is this "gift of nature" and how much is it part of a planned workout?
It’s a very big part of nature, it’s very much in the genes. My ancestors were not exactly athletes tho. Somehow I was born with this gift of regeneration. I have a good metabolism, I haven’t gone too deep into this matter myself, but if the coach tells me that’s the case, I believe him. Because of this, I can train more, but you have to be smart and careful not to overtrain, but to upgrade the skills you have. There is a lot to do with training, especially if you work smart.
How do you want the cycling world to remember you? What kind of mark do you want to leave in Slovenian cycling?
I want to give something back to Slovenian cycling. I grew up in Rog, where I had everything available. I want to give that back to our cycling. In fact, it is not the happiest thing right now, I want to give it something back.
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