Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious): “Mine is a love-hate relationships with the Mur de Huy”

April 20 ^th 2022 - 17:51

Mine is a love-hate relationships with the Mur de Huy and Flèche Wallonne - all or nothing. You need to have the legs I had today in order to get away from it with something. Before the climb I knew I had to be in good position if I wanted to win. I was stressing up a bit, so I re-focused and tried to think about nothing in order to find a good position on the approach to the climb. Then everything fell into place. When Alejandro Valverde launched his acceleration, it was the perfect moment also for me to go.

The big reason why I am in such good shape in these Spring classics is that I didn’t panic after I caught Covid-19 in Valencia. While I was undergoing the sickness, I was texting the doctor ten times a day to ask when I could go back to training. Afterwards I kept calm and patient, believing in my shape and my preparation. It took ten days until I first tested negative. We had changed my schedule and I was set to race Volta a Catalunya instead of Paris-Nice, so I had four weeks to train until my following race. The first few days I was just testing my body, seeing how far I could go… and once I felt I was good, I trained really hard. I was in contention already in Catalunya, and in the Classics the victory had not been far off – it had to come one day!

I feel big respect towards Alejandro Valverde. He is 42 years old, and I don’t think by that age I will be doing what he is doing now. He is the King of the Mur de Huy. I was next to him five years ago, in third place, disappointed that I couldn’t follow his wheel when he did his last acceleration. Today it was the other way round – and I’m super proud of it.