Danish double stage winner works a lot on psychology Søren Kragh Andersen doesn’t go wild. He was sitting on the hot seat behind the scenes, waiting for his challengers to beat his time and crossing the line, one after the other, on the Tour de l'Avenir's prologue, in Tonnerre, Burgundy. He almost apologized or minimized his performance: “I am not an expert in time trial”. He had flown over the cobbles, the 12% climb and the fast downhill where he reached 84km/h, but the Danish strong-boy didn't want to celebrate too much.
Kragh Andersen had the same cold attitude on Tuesday right after the finish line of the “mini Tour de France”, where he took victory after a 10 km breakaway with four other riders. “All my team was strong, other Danish riders could have won,” he said. The red and white squad is certainly impressing everyone through its attacks and its three successes in four days – Mads Pedersen, a former Junior Paris-Roubaix champion, won Monday’s stage in a breakaway.
Kragh Andersen, a 21-year-old rouleur, strong building, round face with blonde hairs, is always controlling his emotions.
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“He is very strong in his legs but also mentally,” his coach Morten Bennekou tells Cyclingnews. “We like keeping our riders in the national team two to four years before they turn pro, to help them improve in safe conditions. But Søren is now ready to go to the next step.”
Cyclingnews understands the two-time stage winner at the Tour de l'Avenir has already signed a contract with a WorldTour team but he declines to say more about his plans, only adding he might move to Girona, Spain – where members of several pro teams have established their home base.
Kragh Andersen is careful with his words as much as with his emotions. Asked why he loves his sport, he mentions humble things like pain and team work. “The suffer is a good feeling when you are strong,” he explains. “I really enjoy it when I am in a good shape and with good legs”. About his team playing he says he likes “riding for the others”, whatever they are his fellows in the national team or his old brother Asbjørn, who races with him at Team Trefor-Blue Water, at Continental level.
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