Jakob Fuglsang returned to racing for the first time since the UAE Tour in February at the Tour de Hongrie, and having climbed to a top ten result on stage three, and finishing eleventh overall, he is right where he expected to be.
“I’ve felt pretty good, I’m about where I thought I would be, especially being out of racing for so long. There’s still a bit of work to do, but it was good to be up there on stages three and four, so I have to be satisfied with this result.”
The five-day Tour of Hongrie was a race of two parts; the flat sprint stages, and the two climbing stages, which decided the overall general classification. With only a few opportunities on these climbing stages for the best riders to explode the race, climbers had to make the most of their chances when they had them. For Jakob, it was just a matter of riding at his own pace, and not trying to follow too many attacks.
“For sure when you follow every one you’re going to get tired, and as this was my first race back, I didn’t want to overstretch myself. So when on stage three Marc Hirschi and the other guys went for it, I just stuck to my own pace, and managed in the end to get quite a decent result for my first race back.”
His strong finish overall and his top ten are good signs for things to come for the rest of the season. Targeting an appearance in this year’s Tour de France, he has a busy schedule to get up to pace with the other top riders who will be there.
“The plan for the the season is to target going to the Tour, and I’ve got a good block of training and racing that should prepare me for that. First I have an altitude training camp in Andorra, then the Tour of Suisse, where I hopefully will have built up on my form.”
Sport Director Rene Mandri, was pleased with Jakob’s performance throughout the race, and knows that with some work, top form is not far away for him.
“Jakob is on the path of coming back after injury, and he’s still building up form at the moment. To get a top ten in a stage and then finish eleventh overall shows that he’s on a good path. He has a training camp coming up now, so he can jump another level.”
