Hansen on…
…his 20 consecutive Grand Tours
‘To get selected every year was not so easy. Not being sick: that was a huge thing, because riders always get sick. And not crashing out. So to have all that fall into place is not only a remarkable achievement performance-wise, but also just luck and being healthy and staying away from crashes.’
…lack of rider development
‘Back at Htc-highroad [in 2007] they picked a whole group of riders [such as Mark Cavendish and André Greipel] that would develop into stars, and they knew their potential and they could sort of foresee it. Whereas today teams are looking at guys that are already good, and they’re just dropping huge amounts of money on them, crossing their fingers and hoping they will be this one kind of rider.’
…his vegan diet
‘People say: can you be a top professional on a vegan diet? Victor Campenaerts [Lotto-dstny] right now is on a 99.99% vegan diet and he has been racing extremely well. And secondly, all professionals rely on vegan food as energy: pasta, rice, oats, sugar, glucose, sucrose – everything that’s energy-based is vegan. Eggs don’t give you energy. Steak does not give you energy. So from a performance point of view, every athlete should be vegan.’
…pressure in cycling
‘If you look at the team leaders, they have a lot of pressure. And if you look at Caleb Ewan [Jayco-alula] this year and the problems he had with Lotto-dstny [his former team], he’s paid well – very well – to win, and when you are not winning, that’s a lot of pressure. And things can go south very quickly on the mental side.’