From activity to activism to completed adolescence? If Jonasrutsch has his way: yes. This winter, the professional cyclist asked himself a few fundamental questions, including what kind of racing driver he wants to be – and can be – in the future. Starting from the realization that from now on, in his fifth year on the World Tour, he is not a young but an established professional.
“I can’t and don’t want to make the mistakes anymore that I’m supposed to protect my young teammates from as best I can,” said Schiebe in an interview with the FAZ at the end of February while sitting in the car on the way to Belgium. What is always a special trip for the Odenwälder man, as it goes to Flanders, the cycling-crazy region that will be the center of his sporting life in the coming weeks.
Back and forth through Flanders
The trip marks the transition from months of training camps and racing overseas to his core Central European business. The classic season traditionally opens with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (this Saturday). And Gleit, who particularly appreciates the tough one-day races with cobblestone sections, will be doing a few more races all over Flanders. Including the Tour of Flanders and later his favorite French race Paris–Roubaix.
He wants to ride it with a different posture – which doesn’t mean his sitting position on the bike, but his mental approach. “It clicked in my head,” saysrutsch about the time after his largely unsuccessful 2023 season. “I race bikes differently. I no longer allow myself to be as stressed as I have been in previous years. I know better what to do and what to expect in individual situations and races. And I can better ignore the things that I can’t influence,” saysrutsch.
For example, the fact that he is in the contract year, i.e. his contract with the EF Education-EasyPost team expires at the end of 2024 – so from now on he will also be competing for his future in the first cycling league in this or another team.
“Throwing his grains around wildly”
From activity to activism to completed adolescence? Slip wants to be more mature and grown-up, smarter and shrewder in the peloton than in previous years. As a particularly active driver, the 26-year-old started out as a young professional in the Corona years of 2020 and 2021. Over the past two years, there have been seasons in which, in his eyes, he was too action-oriented.
“I was a driver who threw his grains around wildly. “That’s just about possible in the first and maybe the second year, but then it becomes difficult at this level,” saysrutsch. That “had a lot to do with uncertainty.” A diffuse “fear of,” as the two-time Tour de France participant says, “of doing and investing too little.”
Slip is now considered a particularly hard worker in the scene. And he himself says that he has never failed to fulfill a training plan, but has usually done more than required. “But whether not fulfilled or overfulfilled – both ultimately mean that the plan was not fulfilled,” said the 1.97 meter tall athlete.
In Australia he experienced that he has not only prescribed a new calmness, but that it is already having an effect. During the six-day Tour Down Under, he was truly amazed at how well he fulfilled his helping duties, even though he had only had a few days of intensive training under his belt. At the 158 kilometer Surf Coast Classic he was part of a leading group that was only caught three kilometers from the finish.
Three days later at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (178 kilometers), the first WorldTour race of the year, the Hessian once again fought his way into the decisive 17-man breakaway group. “In the previous three years the race was always difficult for me because of the bad waves in the finale. Now I got over it with all the riders who weighed 60 to 70 kilograms. “That’s very encouraging,” said Schiebe, who, despite being completely exhausted, secured a top 10 result in the sprint.
Alex Westhoff Published/Updated: Recommendations: 14 Alex Westhoff Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 12 Alex Westhoff Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 7
Now the so-called “opening weekend” of the classic season is on the program. Slip starts this Saturday at the Omloop, a 202 kilometer long race including the iconic Flemish climbs to the Bosberg and the wall of Geraardsbergen. The next day, Oberurseler John Degenkolb intervened in the Belgian business at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.
Inrutsch’s team there is no star who is primarily aiming for the spring, so he is hoping for a few chances in the coming weeks to be able to drive for results on his own account or with the support of teammates. “I’m in the flow right now,” saysrutsch. “And that feels good.”
