"I have to do sprints of 25 seconds all the time" - Matej Mohoric takes on completely new winter training to battle Pogacar and van der Poel in Flanders

Matej Mohoric is entering another year with Bahrain - Victorious as it's classics leaders. He is brilliant technically, tactically and has very good endurance. But now, the Slovenian has started working with a new coach and is training very intensely throughout the winter so as to improve his explosivity in the cobbled classics.

"The training sessions of my new Belgian coach are ridiculously tough. I have painful legs for the first time in December. I have to do sprints of 25 seconds all the time. That is much harder than the 5-hour endurance training sessions that I am used to," Mohoric told Sporza. This is all thinking of the spring classics, and the 30-year old has trust that it can work.

"Why do I have to do that difficult interval training? You should ask my coach," he jokes. "The Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix remain the two most important events of the year for me. In the Tour, I have never finished in the top 10. Something always happened, think for example of my crash in the previous edition... I came close two seasons ago in Roubaix, when I finished 5th". 

The Belgian news outlet spoke with Loic Segaert as well who is now training Mohoric, who explains why they are opting with a different training method in the cold winter months: "The goal of these trainings is to improve Matej's VO2 max and also his anaerobic capacity," he puts it out simply. "The latter is certainly not his strongest point, but it is very important in the classics. There are only a few riders who can follow Pogacar and Van der Poel. That is also not the absolute goal with Matej."

"If Pogacar attacks on the Oude Kwaremont, Matej will not be the first to jump on his wheel. The Kwaremont is an effort of 3'30" and Pogacar can gain half a minute there. But if Matej does not blow up and maintains himself in the chasing group, he still has a chance to return to the head of the race," he hopes. This past spring he was very hindered by injuries as he told us earlier this month, but if he manages to avoid it this time around he will be an outsider for the monument wins.