"I've learned that I have to listen to my body": Jonas Abrahamsen reveals what enabled his huge performance leap
Cycling
These days, Jonas Abrahamsen is one of the main stars of the newly WorldTour team Uno-X Mobility. The charismatic Norwegian gained a lot of attention through his fearless attacks at Tour de France and performances in Classics, but his story to be one of the better cyclists in professional peloton wasn't always straightforward.
"I worked seven and a half hours every workday as an electrician," Abrahamsen opens up about his life story for WielerRevue. "I'd get up around six in the morning, cycle twenty minutes to the company where I worked, and then work from seven in the morning until three in the afternoon."
The Norwegian's day was far from over. "I'd cycle home, eat something, and train. From four in the afternoon until seven or eight at night. Then I'd eat something again and be in bed by nine. I did that for two and a half years. During that time, I barely had time for friends, let alone a girlfriend. It was just rest, training, and work. I also did physical labor."
At one point, it all became too much for Abrahamsen. "As a junior, I was quite good, but as a promising rider, I didn't develop at all. In retrospect, I was asking far too much of my body. I never considered quitting cycling, but it was difficult to find a team every year. I wasn't getting the best results and had to send emails to teams every year asking if they still had a spot for me."
After two and a half years of working, Abrahamsen noticed his career was heading in the wrong direction. "I was constantly tired. I trained too hard, ate too little, and worked too much. But I learned a lot from that time. One of the things I learned was that I have to listen to my body. I couldn't work a whole week and eat very little and train at full throttle."
Jonas Abrahamsen beats Mauro Schmid in a sprint for victory of the stage 11 at the 2025 Tour de France
Uno-X trusted in Jonas
That was when he made the decision, quit his job and signed up for the new Uno-X project in 2017. His performance curve immediately spiked up. With that level Abrahamsen was never let go by the Norwegian team, including during its promotion in 2020. Back then, Abrahamsen was already 25 years old and was still classified as puncheur/climber. However his results wouldn't raise an eyebrow of most cycling fans.
"I've mentioned it before, but back then I was still a climber who always wanted to be as light as possible."
Then a change in mentality and approach came. Abrahamsen spent more than a year putting on weight and mainly muscle, transforming the once fragile puncheur into one of the most feared flat engines in the peloton. It was a gamble but one that paid off massively as Abrahamsen would go on to wear multiple distinctive jerseys at the Tour de France and finally also won a stage in 2025.
"Every year I gained a little muscle mass. That's how I was able to win a Tour de France stage."
With that, he fulfilled a childhood dream. "The next dream is to win Paris-Roubaix or the Tour of Flanders. A podium would be fantastic, but the dream, of course, is to win. Van der Poel and Pogacar are incredibly strong, but when I have a good day and they have a bad one, you never know in cycling."
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- That may be but that is unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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- he is doing 460 watts for 35 min to achieve 7 w/kg with VO2 at 96 , just unreal numbers.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just do it, and put up with the consequencesJumpyjohn08-11-2026
- "was a headliner at the Tour de France" Nobody cared about Piddie. Only rivals that were there for Pogi, Jonas, Remco, Sexias, Lipo, Del Toro and they were all expected to lose. Piddie was not even in any conversation.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- exactly, he had an amazing season, but with these overstatements they don‘t do him good.Ketterechts08-11-2026
- More to the point, it isn't his remaining goal.Renz08-11-2026
- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
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