by Silvan Dillier spoke about the intense training sessions at Alpecin-Deceuninck, noting that they were beyond anything he has seen in over a decade of racing. He also says that being part of the team with the winner of Paris – Roubaix was incredibly rewarding. “Van der Poel is the best teammate I’ve ever had,” Dillier told WielerRevue. “He inspires everyone on our team.”
Training with the former road world champion was also a blessing for his progress as a professional. Dillier, 34, has won stage victories in races such as the Giro d’Italia and the Tour of Norway, as well as an overall victory at the Route du Sud Cycliste and a second place at Paris-Roubaix. In the latter stages of his career he has now developed into a superdomestique.
I ask you once again to appreciate the insane skills of Mathieu van Der Poel
“I’m good at maintaining my speed over longer distances. Riding with or controlling the leading group requires the same effort. “That’s always been my strength and now we’re trying to train more effectively on that,” he said. “Not for my own results, but for those of the team.”
Dillier said it was a great job being a support driver for one of the best drivers in the world. “Controlling a race like the Tour of Flanders is hard, but I also enjoy it. There was more pleasure than pain,” he said. “It’s also important that I drive for people who can actually win. It offers a different motivation than driving for a front runner who can only finish in the top ten under the best of circumstances.”
Training with Van der Poel is, as you can imagine, brutally hard. “When I joined the team, there were games almost every day,” said the former Swiss champion. “We have become a little calmer and train more structured, but from time to time we can’t hold back and the training explodes like a race.”
However, there are still days when MvdP needs to let it rip. “Yes, it helps that Mathieu has changed a bit too because he is definitely the spark that ignites things when it comes to racing,” he said. “If he feels like playing, it doesn’t matter what’s on the agenda that day. If he wants to race on a quiet day, then it’s a race.”
And when that happens, other drivers will inevitably try to keep up with him – for as long as they can. “I would say I was able to push him to his limits at times, but I’m not going to exhaust myself in one training session when I have a whole training camp ahead of me. We always get to the point where we think: That’s enough for now.”
