Marius Mayhofer in a TOUR interview
The interview was conducted by Andreas Kublik
TOUR: Congratulations! You won the World Tour one-day race Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Australia as a largely unknown professional cyclist. How much did you surprise yourself?
Marius MayrhoferIt was a surprise. But I knew beforehand that I could achieve a good result after my experiences at the Tour Down Under. Originally, our team planned to ride for Patrick Bevin - but he crashed before the Tour Down Under. I took over as leader.
TOUR: After crossing the finish line, you lay on the ground screaming, trembling, sobbing and exhausted. Have you ever been in such a state of emergency?
Mayrhofer: Looking back, it's unpleasant to see these pictures of myself. I say to myself: I wish you'd pulled yourself together a bit more! But it happened. I had a tough time behind me - it was just a very, very nice moment to win a race right at the start of the year. All that pressure falls away in a millisecond at the finish line. I've wanted to win a pro race for so long.
TOUR: It was your first victory as a professional, after five years without any great success. Yet you were considered one of the greatest German talents. At the 2018 Junior World Championships in Innsbruck, only Remco Evenepoel was faster than you on the mountainous course. Didn't you see winning silver at the World Championships as a success back then?
MayrhoferNo. Second is the first loser. You just have to look at the face I put on at the finish. Everyone around me was happy and said: Great, you're second! And I thought: I've lost! I'd spent the whole year working towards the World Championships - I'd lost an extra five kilos.
TOUR: Why did Evenepoel, who is the same age as you, hit the ground running in the professional ranks and become professional world champion at the age of 22, while it took you a while?
MayrhoferRemco was the first to turn professional straight after the U19s. I could never have imagined that. It was right for me to stay with the Sunweb development team, or DSM, in the U23 category for three years. In the first year, I struggled with a knee injury for ten months. The second was the Corona year. There were hardly any races.
TOUR: What are your plans as a professional?
MayrhoferI want to race without stress and pressure, on profiled routes. I think shorter, steep climbs are cool, difficult races with windy sections where only a few people are sprinting for victory - more in races on cobblestones than in races in the Ardennes. The climbs there are a bit too hard for me.
TOUR: You have now won a sprint ahead of Michael Matthews and Caleb Ewan - but you call one of the highest Alpine passes your favourite mountain, the Stelvio Pass.
MayrhoferI'm not a mountain biker, but I'm not a thoroughbred sprinter either. I like to ride up mountains in training. Even when I was little, I used to ride my mountain bike up the Stelvio. And on my first holiday without my parents, I was camping with friends in Prad on the Stelvio Pass, we often rode up - those are great memories. I like the vibe there with all the cyclists.
* Pascal Ackermann won Eschborn-Frankfurt 2019
Andreas Kublik
Editor
