Julien Vermote wakes up with heavy legs and a foggy head. It’s the morning after Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and, after making himself a coffee, he gets ready to head out for a recovery ride. As well as spinning out the lactate from his legs, he’ll also be spinning out a lingering sense of disappointment.
The Belgian was a late attacker at Kuurne and was on his way to a sensational victory until he was unceremoniously caught by the peloton just 200 metres shy of the line. Scarcely two kilometres from his home, it cut deep. "It will take a long time to swallow this," he said, pale as a ghost.
On the Monday morning, as he welcomes Cyclingnews into his home on the outskirts of Kortrijk, he’s slightly more philosophical. "Ah, it’s ok, at least I tried, eh?"
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Vermote wraps up against the icy conditions and heads into town to pick up his old teammate Zdenek Stybar from Quick-Step’s hotel. After an hour’s riding through the network of narrow roads in the Flanders countryside, they stop for lunch and meet up with another old friend, Niki Terpstra.
"During the Classics it’s nice to go out with the guys like Styby. You can catch up again. A lot of guys stay around Kortrijk, so in that’s really nice because we don’t see each other so much, and at the races you never have enough time to speak. So when they’re staying so close to your home it’s easy."
Vermote's training routes
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