“My body had the ability to build the muscles required” - Jonas Abrahamsen on transitioning from a climber to a rouleur

Having begun his season strongly at the Étoile de Bessèges, where he won the mountains classification, Jonas Abrahamsen has continued to pick up some impressive results in the first half of the season.

He put in a memorable ride on stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico, as he nearly held on for the victory after being in the breakaway for the entire day before being caught inside the last 50 metres of the stage, finishing in seventh place.

He then backed up this performance in the Spring Classics, as he finished runner-up at Dwars door Vlaanderen, winning the sprint behind Matteo Jorgenson for second place ahead of Stefan Küng, Tiesj Benoot and Dries De Bondt.

This shows Jonas Abrahamsen’s switch over the last couple of years from a climber to a rouleur who can compete in the Classics, as he has been up towards the front in many of the races this Spring.

In an interview with Domestique, Abrahamsen discussed his transition, as he said “the team was saying to me that maybe I should put on a bit more muscle. I knew that if I went up around twenty kilograms, it would be very hard at the start to build the same functional threshold power and watts per kilogram under a short period. My body had the ability to build the muscles required”.

On how he has improved after putting on the additional muscle mass, the Uno-X Mobility rider said “my body is reacting better and better to my increased weight. I was going from a watts peak of 900 to 1500 when I was getting heavier. With this switch, I also get more opportunities as a rider, now I can be part of a sprint, go in a breakaway or be a lead-out for the climbers. Talking of that, I think my climbing level now is probably the same as before the switch”.

With the Amstel Gold Race set to conclude the Norwegian’s Classics campaign next weekend, Abrahamsen was asked what his goals were for the remainder of the season, to which he replied “to hopefully make the squad for this year’s Tour De France team and get a good result there. Obviously we will see but it would be very cool to go there again. The parcours suits me and I hope to get in a breakaway and fight for a victory”.