“It is extra nice when that victory comes at a good time” - Marijn van den Berg takes confidence from Alberto Bettiol’s victory at Milano-Torino ahead of Milano-Sanremo

After he had a fairly strong start to the season with a fourth place finish in Trofeo Ses Salines-Felanitx and a third place finish in Trofeo Palma at the Challenge Mallorca, Marijn van den Berg finished second on the opening stage of the Volta ao Algarve, but suffered a concussion after a heavy crash on stage 3.

He then made his return to competition at Milano-Torino on Wednesday, where his teammate Alberto Bettiol took the victory. Looking ahead to Milano-Sanremo this weekend, the Dutchman will once again be riding for Bettiol, who will be leading the EF Education-EasyPost team in the first Monument of the year.

In an interview with In de Leiderstrui, Van den Berg spoke about how he took confidence from Bettiol’s win at the midweek race, as he said “it is extra nice when that victory comes at a good time. The way he did it was also quite impressive, which immediately gave us a good starting point for Saturday with him. Alberto is a very nice guy, who wants the best for the team. You notice that in him, he wants to help others when necessary. That makes him a great rider”.

Looking beyond Saturday’s race, Van den Berg is set to ride the Volta a Catalunya and is then scheduled to race a series of cobbled Classics, as he said “I was really looking forward to this race, so I wanted to ride myself. I won't be at my best, but it's also an experience for the future, I hope. I was also going to ride Gent-Wevelgem next week, but because I haven't had many racing days now, I’m now doing the Volta a Catalunya To get in shape and maybe participate in the sprint. Then we have to see what the plan will be”.