🇮🇹 #TotA Emil Herzog (19) and Cesare Benedetti (36), the youngest and the oldest athlete of #BORAhansgrohe, are competing in this year's Tour of the Alps. We spoke with both riders before the start of the race. ➡️ bora-hansgrohe.com/en/news/tour-o…
“It’s fantastic for me to be able to benefit from the knowledge of experienced pros” - Emil Herzog on establishing himself as a WorldTour rider
CyclingMonday, 15 April 2024 at 14:00
Having been part of the Auto Eder development team for two years as a junior rider, Emil Herzog was promoted to the BORA-hansgrohe WorldTour team at the start of this season after a year with the Hagens Berman Axeon team in 2023.
At just 19 years old, despite having a very good junior season in 2022 the step up to the top level of professional cycling could have been too much for him, as he struggled to pick up any major results in the U23 ranks.
However, after a solid early season block in Mallorca and Oman, the young German has formed a key part of the BORA-hansgrohe Spring Classics team, as he has ridden almost all of the major races for the team, including the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix. He also picked up a standout result of seventh place at Milano-Torino in his best finish of the season so far.
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Ahead of his next race at the Tour of the Alps, Herzog said in an interview with his team that “I’ve just entered the WorldTour and have relatively little experience. That’s why it’s fantastic for me to be able to benefit from the knowledge of experienced pros”.
When asked about what the step up to the WorldTour has been like, Herzog replied “it’s the little details, like how to position oneself in the peloton or how to manage energy across stages, these are aspects that operate very differently among the pros compared to the junior levels”.
On his upcoming race in Italy, he went on to say “the Tour of the Alps is a tough race, with many climbs and technically challenging descents. It’s quite different from the Spring Classics”.
Also speaking to the team ahead of the race, Herzog’s teammate Cesare Benedetti commented on the progress that the youngster has made this season, as he said “Emil is a great talent. He got off to a good start in the WorldTour. If he has recovered from the classics, he will demonstrate his abilities at the Tour of the Alps as well”.
On what it is like to have such a young rider in the team, the Italian-born Polish rider said “I still feel quite young. But during a team training camp, I rode with Emil, and it hit me how quickly time has passed. He could almost be my son”.
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024