[Cyclisme] Luc Wirtgen: “We have been preparing for months”

Luc Wirtgen will be on Sunday, at the Amstel Gold Race, a teammate of choice for Julian Alaphilippe and Marc Hirschi. After a difficult start to the season, the Luxembourg of the Tudor team is finally operational.

After a good tour of the Basque Country where Luc Wirtgen signed the first top 10 of his career in World Tour, the Luxembourg runner of the Tudor team, who was not spared by the seeds at the start of the season, is ready to put on his role of road captain for the Ardennes classics that announced, with the Amstel Gold, Sunday. He will perform in stride Eschborn-Francfort before taking a break.

How was the Tour of the Basque Country?

Luc Wirtgen: It went well and it allowed me to resume the thread after a complicated start to the season. Everything came at the same time. injury, fall and illness. It had started with a boweller injury during the winter. When it was settled, I had a fall in the turn of Oman. Then I fell ill, a big flu where I stayed in bed for a week. It was not easy, since my first period fixed was the Italian classics, the Laigueglia trophy and the Bianche Strade, then Milan-San Remo. But I left zero to be ready for the Ardennes, who are the key moment of the season. The Tour of the Basque Country went well. We were there with the Ardennes team. The most important thing for us was to work well in a team and to make efforts in order to scratch the last percentages for the classics. And it went well, I did my first top 10 in World Tour (8^e of the 2^estage). For the rest, I did a good work of a teammate.

We also had the impression that in the Basque Country, your leaders already thought of the Ardennes …

It’s true, we clearly made efforts without calculating. Julian (Alaphilippe) and Marc (Hirschi) were in this perspective. We were trying to make efforts, to go to escaped. It was not easy elsewhere. The goal was above all to forge the group. In the Ardennes, it will be different.

Few teams will have two cards of this dimension

Precisely, you have a great experience of the classics to come …

Yes, I know them well enough, since it will be my third participation for the Walloon and Liège-Bastogne-Liège arrow and my second for the AMSTEL (46^e in 2021). It will be a big meeting for me, I don’t hide it. For me, this is one of the most important periods of the season. I will have to be there to work for the team. My shape is good and I think we’re going to do beautiful things. These three races suit me well. From a personal point of view, the Amstel and Liège-Bastogne-Liège suit me better. But, for the team, it is really in the Amstel and the arrow that we are targeting high. Marc and Julian have already won La Flèche (2020 for Hirschi, 2018, 2019 and 2021 for Alaphilippe). We cannot hide and be satisfied with a top 10. The goal is high, we have been preparing for this for months. All the details will count, everyone will have a big role. When I participated, in the past, I was looking for either to go to the escapes, or to take a result. This will not be the case. I will stay all day around Marc and Julian.

What do you think of participation?

Higher than that, it is not possible. Everyone will be 100 %. We will not be the only ones to be ambitious to give everything on D -day …

And you will initially find a certain Tadej Pogacar …

It is clear that the name of Pogacar will return to all buses at the time of the briefing before departure. It will be the number one favorite. But with us, for example, with two cards, Julian and Marc, we can tactically do well. It has already been running in my head for a long time. I think we can do something of course tactical. Few teams will have two cards of this dimension.