Foldable Bikes Party: Adam Hansen: The five races that changed my life

Friday, 18 January 2019

Adam Hansen: The five races that changed my life

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With a career spanning two decades, and the record for the most consecutive Grand Tours completed, Adam Hansen (Lotto Soudal) has had a unique and prestigious path within professional cycling. The 37-year-old has ridden alongside some of the greatest stars in recent years, and enjoyed success in his own right, and at the Tour Down Under he sat down with Cyclingnews to reveal the five races that changed his life the most.

National championships 2006

My first national championships. Back then I wasn't on a team and I was a bit of a nobody if I'm honest. The guy who won the U23 was Will Walker, and back then the U23 and the elites would race together, and the first U23 rider to cross the line became the champion of that level. I had no idea that those were the rules but I attacked with around 15 kilometres from the finish, and on this little uphill section, Walker came across and I jumped on his wheel.

At the top of the hill, I looked back and I could see that another three riders were working their way towards us. I thought that if I stayed with Walker I'd lose the sprint because I was right on my limit. I decided to take it easy in order to recover and I eased my way back to the three chasers. It was such a stupid move because they were on their knees by the time they reached me. Walker went to the finish and won but as he was U23 and not an elite all I needed to do was stay on his wheel and I would have been Australian champion. It's crazy but I had no idea.

At the presentation, they gave the elite jersey to Russell Van Hout, who won the sprint for second. I finished fourth over the line but that equated to second in the elites, because Wesley Sulzberger won the sprint for second, he too was a U23 rider. Does that make sense? I still can't get my head around it. At the time I was riding for an amateur team in Austria so this was still a massive result and huge experience for me. It was my first major nationals and I was going up against guys like Henk Vogels, Matt Wilson, Mathew Hayman, and Robbie McEwen.

It was surreal racing against those guys to be honest because I didn't know any of them. When I made it into the winning break, Vogels got angry with me at one point because I was riding too hard. And when that happened another rider came up to me and said: "That's Henk Vogels, you should do what he says." I came to learn that Henk was right, that you shouldn't ride too hard when you're in a break, but I found it amusing that another rider would take it upon himself to chime in. Overall, that experience taught me that I could aim for something better in cycling. I never imagined I could get a result like that but it gave me more confidence and it got me onto a Continental team for the next three seasons. If only I'd held Walker's wheel though…

Giro d'Italia: Stage 7, 2013

What do you want to know because I can remember everything about this race. I remember knowing I'd be in the break, and I was so confident I posted a message on Twitter that morning announcing my plans. I'd been in so many breaks up until that point but never made it to the finish but that day everything worked out. Emanuele Sella was in the move as well and we all knew that the end was super hilly. I had done the Giro in 2008 when he'd won two stages - this was before he tested positive - and we were struggling to make the time limit that year because of him. Forty to fifty riders that year were holding onto cars just to make the time cut. It was ludicrous. He was doing it day after day and at the time I thought I'd never come back to the Giro.