Cian Uijtdebroeks participated in the Chrono des Nations with the intention of improving his time trial performance, which is his weak point as a professional cyclist. However, to his frustration, this goal was not achieved during the competition. The Belgian cyclist expressed his dissatisfaction directly in a statement to his team, Bora-hansgrohe, in an interview with his country’s newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.
“I was 10 kilometers into the race, and my derailleur came loose, and I was immediately allowed to change the bike. But that spare bike wasn’t right, and I could race as fast as I wanted, but I couldn’t achieve a good result. I come here to learn, so it would be great if my bikes were in good condition.”
Cian Uijtdebroeks delivered a clear message. He wants his team to improve things, especially in terms of time trials, “because that’s something we really need to work on,” he said. In the end, the Belgian finished 14th, over 4 minutes behind the race winner, Joshua Tarling.
“Mainly in terms of aerodynamics and the bike’s construction itself because there is a lot of room for improvement. I have the power. Here I ride with my 65 kilograms, averaging almost 400 watts in 1 hour. However, the entire setup needs to be adjusted because we’re losing a lot with it.”
His goal is the Giro d’Italia, the Grand Tour he intends to participate in next year, and whose route was revealed on Friday. He says, “We have two time trials there. We really don’t have more time to waste. This winter, we’ll have to spend a lot of time in the wind tunnel to finally get a more decent position on the bike.”
“Evenepoel and Ayuso have a CDA (Coefficient of Aerodynamic Drag: the lower, the more aerodynamic the rider) of 1.5, and I’m between 1.9 and 2.0. I’m losing minutes with this. We haven’t planned this winter yet, but it seems very obvious to me that there is work to be done.” He finishes with another criticism of his team, “It would be stupid if I didn’t do it.”