WOMEN’S STAGE 1 WINNER – MARIANNE VOS (NETHERLANDS) OF CCC LIV

How did you find that?

Very, very hard. At one point you just want to look around and see if everybody else is suffering as hard as you are because it seems those avatars are just enjoying themselves riding around Innsbruckring! But I think it was hard for everybody as I just got a message from Anna van der Breggen saying she had a hard time as well. It was a really, really good race and a hard race for all of us girls.

Have you trained much on Zwift or is this one of the first times you’ve used it?

I’ve been trying out, but I haven’t done much, so I really had to get the set-up right for this [type of] racing. Over the last [few] days we’ve tried at home and you have to have a stable connection not to drop out of the race so it’s pretty fun when everything works and everything is fine.

Of course, in a real race you have to get your materials right - you have to rely on your mechanic and your team and your gear, and that’s the same thing with this. It’s pretty cool when everything works. I didn’t have much experience but with some shared experience from my teammates, I could really use this in the race today.

Is there another stage you’re particularly looking forward to in the rest of the week or was it this one you were targeting all along?

Well, it’s a stage race and as I always say you have to see it day-by-day. This was my first and tomorrow is my next and I’ll be lining up with some other teammates again.

What’s the set-up you’ve got at home – is it quite comfortable or organised? What sort of trainer do you have and where are you riding?

I’m in the garage, I have the Tacx NEO, which is one of the best trainers I think so I really like the set-up. Of course, the situation is quite intense over the last month with the Covid-19 outbreak; I think more people got into online racing and training and also with our team we did some online rides so we’re all getting more into this. The racing of course is something really different. It’s good to have the ride set-up, then you enjoy it much more, with some fans, with some good screens, trainer… I like this it’s good fun. Still hard! 

How hard it was and how does compare to real race?

I don’t know if you could see me – I was in this Zoom meeting filming myself – and I was lucky I couldn’t see myself, because it was such a hard effort in the final two or three kilometres. You first have this hill where I really had to dig deep to stay with the group and then you try to recover and surprise the group… I nearly missed the group so I really had to make an effort to stay on the wheels and make the final sprint - I really had to give everything. I think it’s something compared to racing on the roads; get this right and the timing right and try to say when you can [go]. My cadence was a little lower than it normally is on the road so I tried to use my gears in my final sprint.

What sort of numbers were you pushing out?

I have no idea! I just looked down, looked at my stamina and gave everything I had. You can probably see it on the screen, but I couldn’t see a thing!

Talk us through the experience of using the power-ups.

I’m not that experienced so I got some tips and tricks from my teammates and those who were racing before and they gave some good information about what to do with those power-ups. Of course, you can’t really use them all the time so I had some good tricks to save it for the final sprint.

MEN’S STAGE 1 WINNER – FREDDY OVETT (AUSTRALIA) OF ISRAEL START-UP NATION

How did you find that race? Did it go as tactically as you would’ve wanted?

I’ve done this race before on Zwift and I knew that being a climber is not actually that well suited for me. It’s just really a 30 second effort, six times, and then sort of saving it for the sprint. It was a bit of a smaller group in the end than I thought but I timed the sprint quite well and that was that.

How does it work during the race? Do you communicate with your teammates or do you ride in isolation and work out a plan beforehand? 

I think with something like Zwift you’ve got to see where everyone’s at around half-way through the race because it’s like a cyclocross race where it’s full gas for 15 or 20 minutes and guys are going everywhere and then it finally settles down and that kind of stays like that for the rest of the race. I think things kind of settle down after about four laps. We were chatting on WhatsApp about what to do and a few guys fired off with about a lap to go to make it quite hard, and safe for me, the sprint worked out for me in the end.

Was this the stage you thought you had the best chance in all along or are there other ones later in the week you’re targeting?

Like I was saying, I’m a bit more of a climber so I’m doing the last stage. I think I can do quite well but it’s obviously a bit more of a pure test, a watts per kilo test, and I like to see how that will go. Today was a bit more of a, not a gamble, but you never really know how sprints are going to go in real life. I knew I could be in the mix but not entirely sure if I could pull it off or not.

You said you’re not necessarily a sprinter but a climber, so how did you swing things back in your favour, because you beat some guys like [Mathieu] Van der Poel and there were some strong guys there?

It’s a timing thing isn’t it. I’m sure if we look at the numbers afterwards, you’ll probably see that Van der Poel had ridden a lot hard than me throughout the race as he’s maybe not as experienced on Zwift. I didn’t do any Zwift before lockdown two months ago and I just jumped on Zwift and did a few races and really enjoyed it – I thought it was a really easy way to train. Banging out 4x15 minute intervals, I’d just do three or four races on Zwift and after a while you get the hang of it. I’m a climber but I can also pack a bit of a sprint so it’s a nice card to have because if it’s a hard race and there aren’t as many guys left, you can pack a sprint. But I don’t think we can read too much into it that I beat Van der Poel on an online Zwift sprint… but yeah I’ll take it for now.

I image the dream is to get a ProTour or WorldTour contract?

Yeah, for sure.

People are talking about good publicity for the teams to stay afloat but what about riders looking to make that next step and how important is it to be in that shop window?

The new UCI rule this year that continental riders attached to WorldTour teams can race with the WorldTour team, it helps me a lot. I’ve already been with the WorldTour team this year so I can flip-flop a little more. I think riders need to think a bit differently in this period – there’s no way we can get results. The only way we can get results are through things like this or publicising the team sponsors online or through social media. It’s time for riders to think a little bit more out of the box and not just from a pure results standpoint because at the end of the day we’re billboards for our own sponsors and they’re all going through a bit of a hard time right now. I want to take the step into the WorldTour team full-time, not just part-time. I think by helping our sponsors out at such a difficult time, it’s only going to help me.

Are you confident this opportunity will be around at the end of the year with everything that’s going on?

I back myself. I’m a hard worker. I know I’ve got an ability as a cyclist and I’m in the right place. Israel know what they’re doing, I think they’ve got a long-term plan set in place for me. I’m a bit different to most riders; I came to the sport quite late. I have a bit of a different story to most people and the people at Israel appreciate that, they understand that, and they know it’s going to take a bit of time to mould myself into the rider we both want me to be in the future. 

Is that your plan – to join the WorldTour set-up next year?

The sooner, the better. The idea is we don’t want me to jump into the team when I’m not ready for it. I don’t think it’s a physical thing, it’s more of a standard race thing and tactics and energy conservation in a peloton. I’ve only been riding for just over four and a half years now and I was a runner my whole life. I’m getting there and hopefully I’m not too far away. We’ll just have the see when racing commences and how it’s going.