"In most other races, I would have pulled out, but with Grand Tour it's different" - Felix Engelhardt on his tough Grand Tour debut experience

Felix Engelhardt made his Grand Tour debut at the 2023 Vuelta a Espana even if it wasn't the race he or his team Jayco AlUla would've hoped for. He spoke to Cyclingnews a couple of days after the race ended in Madrid about what went right, what went wrong and what has he learned.  

"It's definitely more work and more effort that goes into the race…all the teams bring their kitchen trucks, the buses and whatnot - it's just the highest level of racing that you can get," Engelhardt said. "It's definitely motivating to give your best, but…there’s a lot of pressure and fighting to get into a Grand Tour squad, so you want to deliver and show the team why you're there in the first place."

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For Engelhardt, the disastrous TTT was just the beginning of a difficult first Grand Tour. A few days later, on stage 5, he sustained an injury to his ribs after a crash, which would hamper him for the rest of the race. It was a tough start, but through the challenges, he learned a valuable lesson – “to not give up and just work through whatever might not be going that well," he said.

"Probably in most other races, I would have pulled out…but doing a Grand Tour, you can't really drop out…I think that part was most different from any normal race. It’s three weeks, it's a long time, and if something goes wrong, you can still turn it around and have a decent race."

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“Jonas came up to me, and he was like, ‘Did you get any power records yesterday?'" - Finn Fisher-Black recalls impressing Vingegaard on Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a Espana