Velorooms Questions with Cancellara, Mollema & F.Schleck
As many of you may know this coming Friday, the Trek Factory team will host their presentation for the upcoming season on Twitter which will include a Video Call with the teams top 3 riders:
Fabian Cancellara, Bauke Mollema & Frank Schleck.
Velorooms have been offered the unique opportunity to present 3 questions to each of the riders which will be then answered via a conference call.
There are no 100% guarantees, but Trek's press officer has said he will try his best to ensure that the questions are answered.
The way it will work is that members will have the opportunity to post in this thread any questions they may have. The deadline for questions to be posted will be 13:00 CET on Wednesday, after that all members can then vote for the questions which they believe deserve to be asked to the riders and we will come up with the 9 questions to present
[1].
[2] So start asking..
Q) How are you feeling Fabian?
Fabian: I feel ok, I feel relaxed and comfortable. i feel I have done my job, and I am where I should be now, I had a good training camp in now in Majorca, went to Christmas time with family and stayed together enjoying nice moments in the year. Things are going in the right direction and things in the right place.
Having Steegmans is a step higher, he is challenging me and challenging the team and challenging the classics riders, which is good. I need that and it gives me the possibility of working harder, I tried to work harder and do better than what I am doing. It is good due to young generations of riders, I am getting older, yet I am still somehow young.
Yet the young people think less and just perform, at my age , there are more things going on around me which make me think more as a team, the cook makes the stuff which is first healthy and is ready day by day with all the ingredients, but I am still challenging him even more. I want even more. i am not just happy. For me 2014 I won Flanders, but it was not enough, I have said it many times, before TDS I hadn't finished any races due to crashes and I didn't really perform in the races I raced, I focused too much on the Worlds. The coming season I won't focus on the Classics and Worlds only. I will focus on all races, like a pyramid, the classics are at the top and going back to base, instead of living just on the high level of big races, which is what will be changing this year.
Also a big difference as after 4 years when I looked back at last year , last year was a year I could breath a bit more, we didn't have any changes and nothing internally, no new sponsors or contracts, lots of things which were different. So going into this year is much easier and quieter and my break at home was fantastic and amazing as allowed me to enjoy so many days at home. I could live at home and lead a normal life, just going out and ride on the bike.
q) Do you feel extra pressure to win Flanders in 2015?
I don't feel anymore pressure, just the pressure I already have put on my shoulders by myself. 2014 was not enough, the way things came, I won which was nice, but honestly I wanted to achieve more. This year I have more of a challenge than pressure, besides me and Tom there is only Slyvain Chavanel who has won Flanders, (sorry Nick Nuyens... actually Nuyens has stopped). So they are all challenging and very hungry. So it is just me and Tom who have won Flanders. (Maybe you need to go on Wikipedia and find the latest winner, but what I remember Actually just Stijn, but he is on my team so it is different) From 2005 (looking at Wikipedia) to 2014 the only one is Stijn asides from me and Tom. So they are all hungry, but I am also hungry. But they are people who are really really hungry, but I am as well so we are on the same level. When you win more and more it is also hard to maintain the success so that is a challenge. But i can complete that challenge because I am ready for it.
q) Vanmarke & GVA pushing hard to win Flanders "Sep said that Fabian wasn't strongest, just smartest. Do you need to train harder to stay ahead of younger guys?
a) Train harder, I am always training hard, but I have train and come up with things using race smart and also be stronger than them. My experience helped me to win, but also to how the race came. I know I eneed to work harder as I worked hard last year, but last year it was not enough so I need to work even harder this year. I am not running behind my schedule and I am in a good schedule so that is actually really good and is why i am good. As running always behind is not good and i have experience at momemt,
q) Who do you think your rivals are in
Sagan changed teams, see if he can handle pressure. See how he can handle a big team and a big salary and big expectation within a big team and so he will have expectations internally within the team itself. and everyone. Sep Vanmarke, but his team looks weak. GVA . Have tonnes of riders everyear. Tom we have, but different situation for him as he soon is turn to be dad, I am really happy for him and situation and hope twins are healthy when they come. Team for tom itself is really strong
We also have Bradley Wiggins coming up. What Bradley will do nobody knows. He is really We know he is going to be competitive for Roubaix, but also maybe for Flanders. We know Bradley when he focused on things can somehow achieve it and he can be one of those contenders which people push off and ignore and i have been suspect to that.
q) Wigggins in PR, is he a serious contenders
I believe he will be a really good contenders not just talk but is really serious things, team sky and bradley are very motivated as it will be his last race for the team yet he is focusing on other things. he prepared last year, came pretty close pressed a lot of people. Roubaix is a special race but Bradley is a serious contender.
q) Is there a golden age for the classics, with Tom, Cancellara, GVA and young contenders Sagan etc.
It is a mix, Of course there is a golden age, it is one of best years normally should have a lot of experience. I think that it depends on the situatio nwhen you see the young riders it is not to say that their not strong enough because they need more strength for the 200 or 250km nothing like that. my case is that everything came in my last years, since 2006 I had a different year that my career went, since 200 been running as a golden age so since 2006 on the highest level with classic results. When you get older you think more, so maybe that is why I am trying to learn from young riders to use and to get rid of all the small questions going to the soigneurs and trek, managers to get rid of all of these and jsut ride the bike and not to run team and to . I can rid of all these so that is why i am still young.
Is Steegmans challenging you in races, training
Steegmans is challenging as he comes from a Belgian team and another philosophy as he needs to get our philosophy as needs how we train for classics. Also we washing goods that he will be ready I am working differently than other teams work with him. as a leader I will give my ebst to implmement him in my setup and last year we saw he got kicked out somehow before Flanders and PR but he ws super strong I heard in the Belgian champs and things didn't go really well, definitely things didn't go well for him of course it is what I see for outside. i haven't spoken much hwo he was riding for quickstep as i need to think about thihgns for myself, of course as he moves up with his condition he can challenge myself and also with him and also Boy Van Poppe we now have 10 riders who can do the classics and so can challenge me and other riders, Gert is not just the guy who comes in and control the breakaways in the first kms in breakaway he will be one of the last riders, he knows a lot in Belgian and a lot of things in general and that is my challenge to grow with him and to understand way he is working and also helping younger riders as he is capable sprinter and he is a badass as leadouts need lots of experience as he has done lots of leadouts where he could win, and he has turned about as he is a leadout, yet I think he can win as well and he will get that opportunity on the team.
Hour record - Ambitions cut short?
Q) When the UCI recently altered the rules for the Hour record, did you ever consider still attempting it under the "Merckx" rules, the way you had been preparing, just to do it?
My worst question, every joutrnalist has asked me this quiestions. I really started this hour and suddently it got changed from UCI in a way where I didn't get this motivation, we see now the current situation is that everyone who wasn't even thinking is saying I am doing it now and I am doing it there. Which is good for the track and gives new exposure for cycling. Yet I am missing something, my motivation after the UCI changed the regulations, and I am focusing on other things, for the last thing I wanted to do was a 100 hour show and I feel everyone wants to do 1 hour show, as I feel a bit said about the past and I think that is has now changed.
I think Wiggins when he does it it keep for a long time, as he is a master on the track and also he won the Worlds so when you put both together he looks very strong. What i am going to do is go for the classics and trhat is what counts. So it is not a plan at all and my plan is about what I am focusing now on, and that is no space i nthe season , as there is still the Tour and the Worlds and I am not sure yet what I will ride yet, what is the best adaptation for the one day races, whether to do the Tour as preparation or just the Vuelta etc. It is not jsut the classics and Tour and Worlds. I want to start my races with more will than just race the race and saying there is tomorrow, but rather look at is at that there is no knowing what will happen tomorrow.
World Championships - experience after worlds of alst year?
A few thigns which I saw, I got a lot of new training and experience which I won't tell as it is secret. I think I did everything right, when everything went my battery was just over in one second. I didn't do a lot wrong in the race, but.. I jsut don't want to focus on this one race as around the Worlds there is a lot of other things. I was too soft in the Vuelta, as I was going to just prepare for the Worlds, but maybe I need to be mroe active and even in the end I will alwayts be a favourite, and maybe I just need to be more proactive which will help during the race.
3 Monuments - or World Champion?
I love those questions as you can't give the answer, of course the 3 will be huge, yet the Worlds will be huge. ye twinning Flanders 3 times will bue huge as no one has ever managed it as for more winning this or that isn't what i am thinking about. I want to simply race and kick ass and that will be that. O fcourse the ambition is there, the classics are my ambition, yet it comes by myself yet my programme can change, it depends what happens. You can never chose one win over the other, as it didn't bring luck.
Race Programme?
I have confirmed Qatar, Oman, Strade bianche, TIrreno, E3, everything like normal, Flanders, Scheldeprijs, Roubaix, what we still need to confirm is the Mallorca races due to a few changes in the race schedule as we were not invited to Dubai! Had to change a few things in our team as a result. Planning with our sport directeurs now to decide our situation and see if everything works and see if I will participate in four days one of in Mallorcae and see what will happen.
Mollema:
Change from Belkin to Trek: How do you feel after your first trianing camp:
I feel really good, it is a new challenge for me, after 7 years in a new team. I felt straight away after I started training in Winter I felt really motivated I think a new challenge does me well. I have already had a enw training camp with team and I've felt it really easy to integrate into team and I've really enjoyed it.
Robert Gesink said happy not to share leadership at Tour?
Wasn't main reason to change teams. I needed a new challenge, last eyars I didn't have the feeling that my progression was as much as I wan'ted it to be and is why I started to think about changing teams, and I already made a decision in APril to change teams and I looked at the teams interested in singing me and once I spoke to luca Guacelrina I had a lot of confidence in the team which looks like a really good team with lots of confidence in the team.
In which areas do you hope to improve with Trek and why? I think most improtant thing for me to improve is general level on uphill levels, need to be able to push an extra 20 watts or so and that will give me an extra push and advantage in a long climb which for me is where I can gain and win time and places in general classificaiton and of course I am working for a new Spanish trainer in team and things I hsve learned in Belkin are still in my mind and I ahve dsicssued new things with my new trained and going well and tt also something to improve and the hour record, Fabian and all the knowledge of time trialling in the team and the bike.
Do you believe podium Tour finish is possible at Tour?
I think it is possible. I have been 6th and 10th at Tour and 4th at Vuelta, I am 28, but I started cycling pretty late and a lot of riders i nthe past have been at their best level at 30s and later, and I thinhk my best years need to stert now and I think training needs to make sure I improve from previous years.
Team expects you to do well, how much pressure do you feel?
There is pressure, as there nice that international team like Trek have signed me to perform
Poll
