After a good two months prep in December and January my season started off well with the Tour of Amissa bongo in Gabon. I was a support rider in this tour for the team and I also managed to get the most aggressive rider jersey on the second stage and also managed a top 10 finish on stage 3. This tour was also very good prep for the Tour de Langkawi which was my next tour for the season.
The Tour de Lankawi went well for me and the team. I managed a top 20 overall in the GC and the team won the Team Competition overall which was a very important result for the team that shows we have depth. I have managed a 6th overall before in this tour but on the Genting stage this year I decided my team-mates had a better chance on the overall GC and set a good tempo for the first half of the climb. I still managed a good result and I’m happy with that.
In the Tour of Taiwan we got a stage win with Tsgabu Grmay and he and Louis Meintjes managed top 5 GC results overall for the tour. The team also managed second on the team GC. I was again a supporting rider for the tour and I was happy to be able to assist my team-mates in achieving very good results for the team.
In April it was off to Europe and with three tours under my belt it was very good preparation for the EU season. My first race was Giro del Trentino and the line up for the tour consisted of the best in the business. Most of the favorites for the Giro d’Italia was doing Trentino as final prep.
I got the best result of my career in the first stage of Trentino getting into a winning break and managing 7th on the first stage of a 2.HC tour in Europe. I am very happy with the result and it gives me a lot of confidence for the future. The Team also managed to do a very good Team TT the same day to put me into 4th overall on the GC. That for me was one of the best moments in my career. Racing against guys like Wiggins and Nibali and being 4th overall after the first day is just one of those things you need to remember as they don’t happen a lot. The rest of the tour was hard but I fought hard and gained a lot of experience .
I also managed a good result in Giro Toscana, a race where it was raining the entire day and quite a technical race with a lot of climbing and descending in the rain. I could go fast on the descends making up spots and saving energy for the next climbs and that is one of the skills needed to excel in tours and racing in the rain.
Tour de Picardie was my next tour for the season. The race is organized by ASO the organizers of the Tour the France. Its was important for us to get a good result as the main goal for the team is to do the TDF in the next 2 years. My job for the race was a support rider for our sprinter Kristian Sbaragli and he managed to get 2 top 10 results for the team which we are very happy about.
I also made a good attack on the last day 25km from the finish on a short climb. I felt very good and was very happy to be able to feel well in the last 25km of a tour and to be able to attack on my own and hold of a chasing peloton for a couple of km’s.
These small efforts and achievements are good for my mindset and gives me a lot of motivation for the following races as I know i have something to offer.
