"Valentino Rossi taught me that the only way to keep with innovations in sport is to adapt" - Sep Vanmarcke shares what used to be his insipiration to keep pushing himself beyond limits

Sep Vanmarcke's career came to an abrupt end in mid-2023, when the Belgian specialist on cobbled classics was diagnosed with a heart problem that was not compatible the career of a professional cyclist. Overnight, he had to switch gears and go from competing himself to the role of a sports director. A bittersweet end for the man who spent 14 years at the top level and witnessed cycling evolve massively since his professional debut in 2009.

As a new analyst in Het Nieuwsblad, Vanmarcke shared some funny anecdotes that made him realize how much had the cycling changed during his career and the adaptation necessary to keep up with the best.

"Our bike sponsor Cervélo came up with a bike that was thirty watts faster than the previous one, our helmet sponsor Giro had developed a helmet that was ten watts faster than its predecessor and our clothing sponsor Castelli had – honestly – developed a pair of pants that yielded a gain of exactly 0.25 watts. At the time we laughed about it. 'We shouldn't really train anymore', we joked. As always, the truth was somewhere in between: we did have to train, haha."

After that time, the developments in nutrition, training and equipment kept going. For riders who have been used to something different their whole life, like Vanmarcke, it is difficult to adapt. You miss the boat. Vanmarcke did go along with those developments, eventually.

"Thanks in part to MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi. In the summer of 2022, I was wondering whether I should ride with narrow handlebars like all those young riders. Then I saw a documentary of Rossi who told me how he saw that the young men had a completely different cornering technique than he did. He explained that he had no choice but to follow that young guard in this to compete for victory again. Because of that documentary, I decided: 'Sep, you're going to ride with narrower handlebars.' And that turned out to be a good choice."