News

"This success is invaluable"

June 6 2009

Hanka’s exclusive interview

Hi Hanka, congratulations to your victory and your great team achievement. Have you celebreated the success?
Yes, a litte but we didn’t have too much time at all. Due to the races taking place in the evening we couldn’t make it from the party to our hotel before 1 a.m. And already at 6 a.m. our bikes had to be loaded.

You’re already moving to the next race?
Correct. We are now on our way from Montreal to Prince Edward Island which is 1200 km away. There the Tour de PEI begins on sunday.

But before we look in the future let’s have a short summary of the Tour du Grand Montreal. You have gathered more and more momentum over the days ...
Yes, I have struggled through the races day by day - it was quite hard. And I would never have dared to dream that I would win the final stage by sprinting.

And once again you have proven that you need some races to get in form.
True. I hoped it would come this way - but I never really believed it would go this fast. After all, I had my first street race of the season in Canada. So this success was very important for me and for my team including the coaches.

You are leading a very young team with many talents of whom some are just about to do their final exams. On the other hand, you are a very experienced cyclist who has had uncountable successes in sports. That is an unusual combination. But from the outside it all seems very smooth.
Yes, that impression is correct. Everything fits just fine. The girls profit from my experience and I do so from their light heartedness. The calming effect of our coaches adds up to it and therefore we all are in a great mood. Everybody respects each other and we’re laughing a lot which I attach a lot importance to. And everyone can see that we are quite successful thereby.

Next comes the Tour de PEI - and expectations are going to be high after the success at Montreal.
Well, now we have set the bar very high. We have given that some thought, too...

And what was the result?
Well, the Tour du Grand Montreal cannot be compared to the Tour de PEI. There won’t be any dominant team taking part whereby the race will be much more open. For us, it means that it can turn out better or worse than before. The only sure thing is that the Tour is going to be very exciting and that we are in a great mood: on and off track ;-)

 

(Click on photo to see details.)