Riding the Presidential Tour of Turkey for the first time at the age of 37, Alexander Kristoff quickly swallowed his disappointment of not sprinting for the victory at the end of stage 2 by watching the live stream of the Tour de Bretagne, a race he took part in from 2007 to 2009.
"It was nice to see my little brother take the win", the Norwegian said. "It looked like a hard-fought victory. The Tudor guy [Jackson Medway] was away and somehow he managed to come back."
Felix Ørn-Kristoff, 19, is the current European champion for road racing in the under-19 category and leads the Tour de Bretagne with two stages to go. "He's an all-rounder", his elder brother stated. "He's got a good sprint but he's not a pure sprinter, he's maybe more of a puncher. He's strong, so I believe that in the future the classics will suit him. He's a bit less of a sprinter than me and a bit more of a rider for the classics, more powerful for attacking, time trialling and stuff like this."
"I try not to teach him too much yet because I still ride but I'll teach him more next year after I stop. If I teach him too much already, he'll beat me! I had six top threes but never won a stage in the Tour de Bretagne and he already did."
The young Felix rides for Wanty-Nippo-ReUz, the feeder team of Intermarché-Wanty, with whom Alexander rode in 2022 before heading back home to end his career with Uno X-Mobility. Felix is contracted with the Belgian WorldTour team for 2026 and 2027. "Harder races are still to come for him", Kristoff said.
A question for 2025 was who would be the next rider to reach 100 pro wins? Kristoff, already a stage winner at Vuelta a Andalucia in February, is currently at 97, as is Arnaud Démare who is yet to open his account for this season, and they're closely followed by Tadej Pogacar, who has 95.
"I was hoping to get one here in Turkey already", Kristoff said, "but the first two days didn't go as I hoped. On stage 1, I got caught behind a crash on the last corner while I was in a really good position in the top 5. On stage 2, the climbs were tougher than I expected, the pace was very high and it was above my level. Stages 5, 7 and 8 should be bunch sprints.
"It's a bit of an obsession to reach 100," he added. "I really want it but if I don't get it this year, I will not continue my career. I'll go till the end of the year even if I reach one hundred before. I've trained a lot for this season so I will not stop like that in the middle for no reason, but maybe I will not win anymore. It's not yet decided which one will be my last race, possibly the Singapore criterium, but I might need to go to Le Tour de Langkawi (28 September-5 October) if I'm still chasing more wins."
And what after twenty years of professional cycling that include victories at Milan-San Remo (2014), Tour of Flanders (2015) Gent-Wevelgem (2019) and the yellow jersey for one day at the Tour de France in addition to four stage wins?
"I'll take some time off for sure. I won't do much next year. I don't want to rush anything. I have four kids so there's still enough to do. I will not be bored in the future. Maybe there'll be some possibilities to stay in the sport, I will not make any hasty decisions in the first year." And there will be Felix to look after…
