Matti Breschel: The peloton's next top model

At the tender age of 17, Matti Breschel left his home in Denmark to work as a model in New York City. At 20, he was signed to the ProTour team CSC. He's got looks, he's got legs, and now, after a rocky 2006, Breschel placed top-twenty in Paris-Roubaix and third in the GP Herning this year, and finds himself among the peloton's top models. Cyclingnews' Katharina Schulz finds out more about this young Dane.

Matti Breschel was on the brink of winning the 2006 edition of the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen when he crashed in the final sprint. He had already won the intermediate sprint and was only seconds behind the current leader Robbie McEwen, and he felt sure that he would be stronger than the Aussie in the finale, when they both went down and Breschel hit the barriers.

McEwen was relegated for irregular sprinting and Niko Eeckhout won the overall, while Breschel couldn't remember his date of birth for almost an hour after the crash. He spent two weeks in hospital in Belgium with two fractured vertebrae, severe concussion and a few minor injuries, before he could return to Denmark to recuperate with his family. The most alarming consequence of the crash was that his short term memory was dysfunctional for a while.

To read the complete interview, click here.