INTERVIEW: Van Avermaet on becoming a King in Belgium

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  • Greg van Avermaet

    Just a few minutes talking to Rio Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet would give you the impression that he feels like he’s on top of the world. Looking back at his 2016 season, it’s easy to understand why.

    The 31-year-old Belgian for so long was cycling’s nearly man. His attacking style meant that he would frequently feature in the front of a race but somehow rarely got the win.

    A breakthrough 2008 saw him capture a stage at the Vuelta de Espana, where he also snagged the final Points Classification jersey.

    But victories eluded him once again until 2011, the year he joined the BMC team. He got his first classics triumph that season at Paris-Tours and emerged as a front-runner in such races moving forward.

    Last year, he claimed his first Tour de France individual stage win but nothing could compare to what was to come in 2016.

    After taking his first overall victory at a WorldTour stage race by winning the Tirreno-Adriatico in March, Van Avermaet grabbed the prestigious ‘maillot jaune’ at the Tour de France thanks to his stage five triumph. He held the yellow jersey for three days before finally surrendering it, which was huge for a classics specialist.

    Then came what he describes as the biggest victory of his career. Van Avermaet pulled off a surprise gold medal performance in the road race at the Rio 2016 Olympics, winning a three-man sprint at the Copacabana beach finish to become one of just two Belgians to top the podium in Brazil last summer.

    “Finally people who maybe didn’t believe in me before can see what I can do,” Van Avermaet told Sport360 ahead of his first Abu Dhabi Tour participation.

    While the Olympics may not be considered by many as the pinnacle of road race cycling, for Van Avermaet, it meant everything because his father had competed as a cyclist in the 1980 Moscow Games, and regarded it as one of the highlights of his career.

    “It was cool already when I did the Olympics in London but now it’s even cooler because if you come back with a gold medal, it’s something unreal I think for a sportsman. I think it’s the highest thing you can get, across all sports. So it’s something really special and I think my parents are just extremely proud that I brought it so far and that, with their DNA, I can be on top of cycling,” he said.

    Being one of Belgium’s two Rio gold medallists, Van Avermaet admits that the reaction to his success back home was “crazy”. With football and cycling as the top two sports in his nation, he was already quite famous in Belgium but his Olympics victory took things to a whole other level.

    “In Belgium sometimes it’s like more important than the king, being an Olympic medallist,” is how he explains it.

    “It’s cool that people have so many reactions, they show me videos of them going crazy when I crossed the finish line first. It’s something special.

    “If someone asked me what I remember from previous Olympics, I’d say I still remember Frédérik Deburghgraeve who won gold in Atlanta (1996) in swimming. For me that image that comes up as soon as I’m asked that question.

    “Hopefully it will be the same with a lot of kids who are at the same age as I was then, when they’re asked what they’d remember about Rio 2016 they’d say my name in 30 or 40 years. That’s what makes the Olympics so special I think. It’s different from a world title or a Belgian title, it’s incomparable.”

    Van Avermaet always believed he had it in him to pull off such major wins, even when he was going through all those near-misses.

    But now that he has shown the world what he is capable of, he feels his life will be a bit less difficult on the road moving forward. While his season seems like a real game-changer for him, he insists his goals remain the same as they’ve always been – going for the classics and the biggest races.

    Crowning glory: Greg van Avermaet savours Olympic gold.

    “For me it (his season) makes it easier because you’re finally at the level, and you get also extra confidence. I’m just training and doing what I was doing before but it comes a bit easier when you get the confidence, from a lot of people, also your team-mates can see what you can do and it’s easier to work for a guy who wins a lot than for a guy who’s just not there. So I think everything has come together and when you start rolling, it keeps on going,” he said.

    “The Olympic title was something unreachable, I was never thinking about it. But wearing yellow, you dream about it. You dream about winning Classics, winning a stage at the Tour, wearing the yellow jersey, so it was really special for me to have three days wearing it, because it’s pretty hard for the type of rider that I am to have for such a long time. Olympics maybe puts everything in the shadow but I had a great year overall.

    “I always had the feeling that I had it in me and finally it came out. I’m so happy I finally showed that I can bring better performances.”

    Have there been any specific reasons behind Van Avermaet’s magical year?

    “It was a gradual progress I think. More experience, taking better decisions in the race, that’s what made the biggest difference. The power compared to other years is almost the same, it’s more reading the race, doing the right efforts at the right moment and that comes with years of experience I think,” he replied.

    Van Avermaet was initially a football goalkeeper when he was young but “the goalkeeper is only one spot in the team, so I lost a few times my place and that’s why I switched,” he recalls.

    With cycling deep-rooted in his family – both his father and grandfather were riders – he says the switch was an almost seamless one, even though he did it when he was 18, which is quite late for a cyclist. Nonetheless, he turned professional three years later and it’s been a rollercoaster ride ever since.

    He’ll be competing in Abu Dhabi for the first time but is very familiar with the region having participated in the Tours of Qatar and Oman multiple times. He’s also coming off a 10th-place showing at the World Championships in Doha last Sunday, where he helped his compatriot Tom Boonen clinch bronze in the road race.

    A relaxed-looking Van Avermaet appeared thrilled to be closing his season in the UAE capital, enjoying the perks of staying at the swanky St. Regis hotel overlooking the stunning Corniche, and he admits he wishes there were more stops on the calendar that provided such comfortable accommodation.

    There are a lot of ups and downs throughout the year when it comes to quality of lodgings?

    “A lot of downs, it’s good to have a few extra ups,” he responds with a smile. “It’s really nice to come to these kind of hotels, it gives a better level to cycling.”

    Quizzed on what he would change about his sport if he could, Van Avermaet said: “I think we have to race more attractively, so it would be good to decrease a little bit the number of riders (per team) to make it a little bit less boring and less predictable.

    “Raising the standard of hotels as well, quality like here for example would be nice, quality of food, the accommodation around the race, sometimes we’re almost like camping, so that’s a thing that needs to change.

    “It’s not normal that we have to change our clothes on the street, cleaning ourselves on the street, so accommodation has to be better.”

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    AWAY FROM THE BIKE

    What would you be if you weren’t a cyclist?

    I would be a sportsman for sure. Football player would be nice.

    Any hobbies outside your sport?

    With a baby at home, I don’t have time to do much, I just take care of my daughter and I enjoy family time. That’s what I enjoy the most.

    Who are your sporting idols?

    I have a lot of idols in football, I think the Belgian team is playing really well, so I look up to them. (Thibaut) Courtois is a good goalkeeper, Kevin de Bruyne is great. I have a little bit of a connection with them so it’s nice when they send you a congrats message.

    Have you gotten used to being an Olympic champion?

    I enjoy it every day. It’s not the attention you get, for me that’s not important, I don’t like to be too much in the picture. Just in my heart I reached something that I wanted to reach in my life.

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