When Robert Gesink notched up a top 10 in his first Grand Tour, the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, the Dutch public began quietly hoping he would be their next great GC rider since Joop Zoetemelk. When Gesink came sixth overall in the 2010 Tour de France (he would later be elevated to fourth after doping disqualifications of Alberto Contador and Denis Menchov) and wore the white jersey for five days, those hopes became belief.
Since that year, a series of personal hardships, illnesses and injuries have kept Gesink from fulfilling his earlier promise, but they have not shaken his confidence or his desire to target big goals. Not yet 30, he has already suffered the sudden, tragic death of his father in 2010, a shattered femur in 2011, a nearly career-ending heart arrhythmia that required surgery in 2014 and then this winter his partner had serious complications with her pregnancy that had Gesink at her side in the hospital rather than training.
"It's been a strange season again," Gesink said to Cyclingnews ahead of the World Championships in Richmond. "I started really bad. Last winter my girlfriend was pregnant with our second child and there were a lot of complications during the pregnancy. I was in the Vuelta a Espana in a very good position, and I had to go home because things weren't good with the baby. In the end I'm happy I went home. It's a long story, but everything went well. But it was really a critical situation.
ADVERTISEMENT
"But I already started this season really tired because of this situation. I was driving up and down to the hospital for two months instead of training. That's one of the main reasons I had a knee injury in the first part of the season. After all this, my son was born in January this year, but then I tried to make up three months of training in one month."
Despite the rocky winter and the early-season knee injury, Gesink was able to get himself back on track, showing good form at the Tour of California in May, and then remaining in the States with his family to prepare for the Tour de France at altitude, using the roads of Lake Tahoe, Mammoth Lakes and Big Bear Lake as a combination of training and family excursion.
"Training in America was quite different from preparing for the Tour in Europe," he said. "I brought the family, and it's like a completely different world. Over here you can focus on family and training much more than Europe. There, there's always something you have to do or somewhere to have to go. So that was a good combination. Also, in the past I had good results over here racing in America and Canada as well. It's bringing back the good feeling."
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://ift.tt/1WNSeFW
No comments:
Post a Comment