Outside of the main favourites, Jasper Stuyven’s (Trek Segafredo) progress at this year’s Classics will be keenly watched, not least by the Belgians. As a winner of the junior Paris-Roubaix, Stuyven has long been talked up by a future Classic contender, even before he turned professional. However, the imminent retirement of his team leader Fabian Cancellara and his recent victory at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, has meant that the attention is only increasing for the young Trek-Segafredo rider.
He will line-up at this weekend’s E3 Harelbeke and Gent-Wevelgem as a potential contender, but he says that it is all about delivering Cancellara to the victory. “I think, for me, it’s really good that Fabian is riding well, so the pressure is still on him. I have my result now, and it doesn’t affect the Tour of Flanders, we have Fabian for that,” Stuyven told Cyclingnews on the eve of E3 Harelbeke.
“It’s hard to have personal goals if you have a leader like Fabian. You also have to see how the race goes. Of course, there are always chances and when you are following the moves you don’t know what could happen. I just want to be there in the final again and if you are then anything could happen.”
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Stuyven has quickly climbed the ladder of professional cycling and was thrown into the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix just months after turning professional. He got a taste for victory pretty quickly with Cancellara taking the Tour of Flanders title that year.
“You know how it feels when you win a big race like that, and I think now it motivates the riders, and me too, to try to get that feeling again,” he said. “I think it’s good to keep making steps forwards, and I think that this Classics is the next step in my development and the aim of going higher in the bigger races.”
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