Jakob Fuglsang on "wasting" much of his career by eating too little

Jakob Fuglsang said he wasted his first eight year as a pro by eating too little and believes if he had the kind of expert guidance that the young riders of today have he could have been a top rider much sooner

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Jakob Fuglsang has said he wasted the early part of his pro career by eating too little. The culture in cycling at the time meant he was expected to learn by his own mistakes rather than the team advising him what to do.

“I wasted eight years of my career eating too little. Nobody pointed this out to me, because that was something you as a rider had to discover for yourself,” he said.

“When a young rider eats too little for one day, that is corrected immediately,” he explained of the more hands-on approach taken now with younger riders.

“Young
riders are better guided than when I was a neo pro. When I debuted, you had to
earn a wind tunnel test. Only the best riders of the team were given a chance
to do so.

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“Every team also employs an army of dieticians. I had to learn that myself, through trial and error. I am convinced that with today’s guidance I would have performed better much earlier.”

Fuglsang won races early in his career, including this victory in the 2008 Tour of Denmark. However, he believes he would have been on a higher level as a much younger rider if he had not wasted time eating too little and making so many mistakes

And in an interview with Het Nieuwsblad, Fuglsang said while he was impressed with the young generation of riders in their early 20s who had already won some of the biggest events in the world, he wondered about the intensity of their approach.

“I sometimes have my doubts about the current approach. Training hardcore in December to be there immediately on the first day of racing.. I’m curious where those young guys will be in ten years time. ”

Now aged 36 years, and having enjoyed his biggest successes in recent seasons - including Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2019 and Il Lombardia last year - the Astana rider said he would like to continue riding until the Olympics in 2024, which would be his fifth Games.

And while he would ride the Tour this year and then go to Tokyo, he would be using the Tour de France as preparation for the Games rather than riding for GC or any other jersey.

"I am convinced that whoever aims for a classification in the Tour will not be recovered to win the road race in Tokyo six days later. Let those young guys try ride the Tour like Alaphilippe did last year. He became world champion a week later."

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