Switching sides | Cyclingnews

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Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark)(Image credit: Tour of Japan)

An interview with Jakob Fuglsang, December 18, 2008

Miguel Martinez, Michael Rasmussen, Cadel Evans are all mountain bikers who have made a successful transition from dirt to the road, and their ranks will be strengthened by Jakob Fuglsang in 2009. The news that the Dane would be joining Bjarne Riis and the new Saxo Bank Team, formerly known as Team CSC, came as an end-of-season surprise among the usual plethora of sponsorship swaps, but his leap is an exciting move for one of cycling's most promising prospects.

After several years of success on the mountain bike World Cup Circuit while riding for Cannondale-Vredestein, Fuglsang was seen as a star for the future. His first year as an elite rider included two World Cup podium appearances, Olympic team selection and victory alongside teammate Roel Paulissen in the Cape Epic. His biggest win to date though came in late 2007 with the title of Under 23 World Champion in Fort William.

"I didn't even know I was doing it. I did training periods of three days hard (five hours on road with intervals), and then a day off, and three more days hard, and the last three days before I left, I started to feel tired. Of course at the time, I thought I would come good and would rest for six days before the race. When I got to Beijing, I never felt good. I never had that power. In training I would feel fast, but not that same feeling you get when you are flying. In training only ten days earlier, I could feel it. There's nothing I can do about that now though, it is all in the past and I have to forget about it, move on and learn."

The biggest changes for the road rookie will not come in the form of discipline, but rather in the shape of a more demanding schedule. The lifestyle on a road team is distinctly different than mountain biking in which teams meet up to race on a weekend. On the tarmac, the organization is an extended family with every member training, travelling and racing together. Far from being daunted, Fuglsang is relishing the experience as a way to get the maximum power out of his engine.

"What I really look forward to is that the team will have a lot of structure. On the mountain bike circuit, the attitude is much more laid back - yeah, we'll see how it goes - and that can be a pain in the ass if you really want to do your maximum and then something is in your way. It is a pity that the teams in mountain biking aren't putting a bigger effort into getting everyone together out of season. It is useful for more than morale - product testing for example. Whereas on the road, it seems everything is planned down to the last detail, you are told what to do to reach your destination."

"Next year will be a testing year - I will be sent here and there. I would love to do the Giro [d'Italia] or the Vuelta [a España] to test myself. For sure those are some of the races I would love to be good at in the future. I don't know yet how I will perform! For the first few years, if I can do well in some of the smaller Tours I will be happy. I think I am pretty good all around but I want to be recognised as a good climber. That would be great. You don't know until you get out there and maybe because of my skills, I will be better suited to something like Paris Roubaix? This is all to be decided and is exciting."