Bauke Mollema (Blanco) took what he described as “the biggest win of my career” as he claimed the 2nd stage of this year’s Tour de Suisse on Sunday as he overpowered Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) inside the final 500 metres to solo to his first win in nearly three years at the summit finish at Crans-Montana. Cyclingquotes met the Dutch rider prior to today’s stage 5 in the picturesque town of Buochs at the fringes of Lake Lucerne.

Seeking shelter from the blazing sun Mollema seemed relaxed and gave the impression of being a rider beaming with confidence. He gave a detailed account of his recent stage win which ended a winless drought dating back to his stage 6 win at the 2010 Tour of Poland.

“With some 800 metres to go Hesjedal was still out in front and [Johann] Tschopp was lying somewhere between Hesjedal and the chasing group,” Mollema explained. “I had been well sheltered and protected by my teammates during the early phases of the stage and that had allowed me to climb the final ascent with relative ease. I had been able to conserve energy and felt confident enough to launch an attack. I quickly surpassed Tschopp and immediately after I saw that Hesjedal was within reach. I reasoned that he must be fatigued after his long breakaway attempt. As I left him in my wake with 500 metres still to go I felt certain that he was finished. I turned around and realized that I had managed to open up a gap that nobody would be able to bridge and at that moment I knew that I would win the stage. There’s no doubt that this is the biggest win of my career and the fact that it ended an almost 3-year-long winless streak just makes victory all the sweeter and gives me an enormous boost of confidence.”

Inevitably his win elevated Mollema to the rank of race favourites at the Tour de Suisse and must raise some doubts within the Blanco team as to who should be the team leader at the Tour de France later this month.

“I’m currently in 6th position and obviously I would like to improve my standings in the overall classification. Evidently, Friday’s stage 7 with the Albulapass summit just some 9km from the finish line will be a key stage to determine the outcome of this year’s Tour of Switzerland. The same goes for Sunday’s individual time trial with a summit finish at the Flumserberg. If I am to improve my GC I will have to match my performance from Sunday.”

With regards to the Tour de France Mollema didn’t beat around the bush when questioned about his ambitions.

“It’s very easy to say that I want to ride a good Tour and finish high on the GC but I think it’s a realistic ambition for me to aim for a top ten spot. To begin with I will probably share the luxury and responsibility of being team leader with Robert [Gesink] and as the race develops we will decide upon which strategy to pursue together with the team management. The Tour de France is such a hard-fought and multifaceted race and it’s impossible to predict all the twists and turns that invariably occur each year. We haven’t decided upon the strategy for the Tour de France yet but my guess is that Robert and I start out as co-leaders and a week or so into the race we will evaluate the situation and decide upon a course of action.”

Sponsorship worries

In the autumn of 2012 Dutch bank Rabobank elected to terminate its sponsorship of the team at the end of the year following the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) report on doping in professional cycling. Thus the bank put an end to a 16-year-long sponsorship deal. In a subsequent statement, Rabobank said that doping was so rampant within the sport of cycling that it was "no longer convinced the international professional world of cycling can make this a clean and fair sport." Asked how the turmoil and the uncertainty surrounding the sponsorship situation had influenced the riders on the newly created Blanco team, Mollema said the effects had been double-edged.

“Of course the news was quite shocking when Rabobank announced its decision to withdraw on such short notice. But once the initial tremor had abated we tried to focus on riding as hard as we could. In fact, the uncertainties concerning the future of the team may have strengthened us as a unit and helped us achieve the results that we did at the opening stages of the season, at the Tour Down Under for instance. Obviously we would discuss the situation from time to time but I never contemplated leaving the team and gradually the lack of a main sponsor slipped into the back of my mind.

Asked if the team would suffer a loss of public appeal in the Netherlands if reports of American company Belkin stepping in as main sponsors should materialize, Mollema had few worries even if Belkin’s involvement might mean a certain influx of American riders in the team.

“I don’t believe that the popularity of the team in the Netherlands will suffer as a result of an American sponsor. It would only be natural for an American sponsor to attempt to integrate American riders into the team. We’ve had foreign riders in the past and we have foreign riders in our present day roster and the affection for the team in Holland hasn’t suffered as a consequence of that. I don’t mean to be immodest but we’re still the biggest cycling team in Holland and our development team is consisting almost exclusively of promising young Dutch riders. This indicates that we are still very much the preferred team at a grass root level in Holland. As long as we can maintain and sustain the development of young Dutch talents, I see no reason why the support for the team should deteriorate.”

Mollema started out at the Rabobank Development Team which was one of the first of its kind, winning the Tour de l’Avenir back in 2007.

For years the RDT seemed to be making a clean sweep of the races they rode but after turning professional several of the riders have found it difficult to translate their success in the youth ranks into equally successful performances in the ranks of the pros. We asked Mollema for an explanation.

“Because the Rabobank Development Team was one of the first of its kind we got a head start and we were able to build on that. We created a set-up, training programs and development plans while drawing on expert know-how before anybody else thought of doing so. Clearly that gave us an advantage from which we benefitted tremendously in the races. At the pro level, though, these differences are evened out as all teams are more or less based upon an identical build-up. Thus we compete on more equal terms, so to speak, and as a result it’s difficult to maintain the same level of success. But today you see many former Rabobank Development Team riders play significant roles on other teams. Tejay van Garderen, e.g., is a potential grand tour conqueror at the BMC. Within our own ranks we have Tom-Jelte Slagter who won the Tour Down Under this season and Wilco Kelderman who finished 5th overall at the Tour de Romandie so I think it’s fair to say that these riders have proved themselves in the professional game even if their results may not entirely match those from their youth races.”

Ardennes ambitions

Before heading off for the start of today’s stage at the Tour de Suisse, Mollema also elaborated on his future Ardennes ambitions, saying he hoped to better his two top ten spots this year (9th at the Flèche Wallone and 10th at the Amstel Gold Race).

“Of course I would like to win an Ardennes Classic but they are very difficult races to tackle and plan for. You might think that aiming for all three of them would be relatively easy because they take place within the scope of just one week but they are quite different in nature. Being Dutch, of course the Amstel [Gold Race] is very important to me but I believe the hills are a bit on the short side for a rider with my characteristics. The Flèche Wallonne is all about position in the approach to the infamous Muur du Huy. At the race you’ll see teams jostling for positions as the peloton nears the Muur for the final time. This year I was a bit unlucky and I got boxed in and by the time I was able to find a free passage the race was all over for me, but even without being boxed in it would have been extremely difficult to compete against explosive, lightweight climbing experts such as Betancur, Henao and eventual winner, Moreno. The Liège-Bastogne-Liège is probably the Ardennes Classics that would suit me best because the hills are longer than in the Amstel. Hopefully that will work to my advantage someday.”