Jonas Abrahamsen is about to make his Tour de France debut, with Uno-X Pro Cycling Team and at the age of 27 years. The Norwegian rider has taken an unusual route in a weight-obsessed sport where the conventional wisdom is that being as light as possible is best.
Abrahamsen for years followed that path of 'skinny is best' and was down to 60kg; climbing well but not setting the world on fire. Indeed, he found light weight riders must be able to compete at the top end of the sport; being among the flyweight climbers on the biggest mountains.
But when he gained weight - mainly because he felt is 60kg marker was holding him back - he found he was a much more versatile rider. He was better suited all kinds of roles, rather setting up his body for the ultra competitive power-to-weight battle on the climbs.
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However, as he spent his first years in the pro peloton on one-year contracts, he did not feel he could set about gaining a significant amount of weight, with his plan to go from 60kg to 80kg. He simply could not afford to see a short term loss of performance - which was inevitable as he gained weight - because he needed those results to be sure he had a contract for the following season.
But when his Uno X team went ProContinental in 2020, and Abrahamsen secured a two-year deal, he was able to press 'go' on his weight gain plan. That longer contract span meant he could afford a period of gaining weight, and adjusting to it, before then riding well again, and proving himself for future contracts.
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“When you’re young, all dream about being on the top of the Tour de France, you can’t weigh too much. I was very skinny when I started cycling, maybe around 60 kilos, and I think my body couldn’t build muscle very fast,” Abrahamsen told 'Velo' journalist Sadhbh O'Shea.
“Maybe I have some fast muscle fibers, but when I was too skinny, I couldn’t use them. I was like pretty good as a junior, but afterward, I felt that I was a little bit too light and I had nothing to build on.”
He said once he secured a two-year deal he worked with his team to gain weight. At the end of the process, his maximum peak power could reach 1,500 watts, whereas it was down at 900 watts when he was a 60kg rider. He said in the period after the weight gain, as his body got used to it, his power output further improve.
"When you are skinny you have to be very good to be on the top, but when you hover around 80 kilograms and you have more peak, you can do a lot of things like helping other riders to get in position, or you can go for a sprint in a small group, and you can go for a breakaway you have much more opportunities. I think that’s very nice.”
His improved riding resulted in leading Tour de Pologne for two days last year. While he suffered a high speed training crash in January, and was off the bike for a period as a result, he has since bounced back. He scored a top 10 finish on a stage in the recent Belgium Tour as well as 14th in Brussels Cycling Classic, after a near 160km breakaway ride, three weeks ago.
He also won bronze in the Norwegian road race championships last week; the best result of his career coming just before his Tour debut.
