Tour de France fifth place finds the weight of a cycling-crazy nation quite heavy
OmegaPharma-Lotto’s Jurgen Van Den Broeck is coming to terms with what it means to achieve the best Belgian Tour de France finish in a generation. His fifth place in July has not quite elevated him to the level of Eddy Merckx; for a cycling crazy country though, constantly searching for the next Cannibal, Belgium wants a piece of its new found star.
Van Den Broeck, like most of the stars of the Tour, has spent much of the last few weeks riding in the series of post-Tour criteriums. While the races are short, and the result usually pre-arranged, the 27-year-old found things tiring; especially combined with his newfound celebrity.
“To be honest, after three criteriums I was already tired,” he told Het Nieuwsblad. “You have to put in so much energy for one man. I constantly had to sign autographs, hundreds of people wanted pictures with me, every time I was only at home for 2 hours at night.
“Those seven criteriums were a lot,” he added, “I just didn’t rest and that annoyed me sometimes.”
Van Den Broeck’s Tour result was the best for a Belgian since Claude Criquielion also finished fifth in 1986, and the last Belgian rider to win the race was Lucien Van Impe in 1976. While a Van Den Broeck Tour victory is still a long way off, he is the closest the country has had to a winner for 24 years.
“I’ve noticed that my life has totally changed,” he complained. “More fun? No, not really; or should I say not always. If I sit somewhere, everyone comes to me to talk about the race; a whole evening, one after the other.
“I sometimes think ‘annoying people, just leave me alone!’” he added. “I also like talking about something other than my sport, eh. But I became public property; that’s not always easy.”
The next race for Van Den Broeck is the Eneco Tour, which starts today in Steenwijk, Netherlands; it will be his first competitive outing since the Tour. He is under no illusions as to how well he will do in the week-long race, but notes that bad form does not necessarily mean a bad result.
“I’ve put on a few kilos and haven’t trained very much,” he admitted. “I don’t know what to expect from the Eneco Tour; not too much really, but then last year I wasn’t good and I came fourth.
“Tour condition doesn’t go away just like that, huh. Maybe after a few days racing there will be a good result in there.”
Looking towards the end of the season, Van Den Broeck has said before that he would ride the World Championships in the service of OmegaPharma-Lotto teammate Philippe Gilbert. Right now though, he’s not sure if it is worthwhile for him to go. “Australia is still very far away, huh,” he said, “and I’m not a specialist for one-day races.”
“Look,” he explained, “World Championship selection should not be a reward for a good season, you have to be in shape if you want to do something. Right now I don’t know how good I could be.”
Whether or not he goes to Melbourne in October, the Belgian is keen to get some good results towards the end of the season. “I still want to have a good autumn though,” he said. “The excellence of the Tour is no longer possible, but I still want to build some solid form, and then we’ll see how things come out.”