In the Words of Kjell Carlstrom

Follow us on Facebook - facebook.com/bikeroutehub and on twitter @SamLStandsUp

Kjell riding Amstel Gold with pre Vuelta 2011 Chris Froome
on his wheel. 

Describing someone as a Finnish cycling legend seems to be the definition of damning with faint praise but in the case of Kjell Carlstrom it's apt. He spent 10 years riding at the highest level of the sport before retiring after the 2011 season, since 2013 he's been working as a DS for the IAM Cycling team. I asked him whether he saw himself as more of a father figure or a teacher in his new role, "maybe a bit of both, I think when you get to the World Tour level you don't really need a teacher. You maybe need someone who reminds you of certain things and that's maybe more of a father. But of course when you are young in your first year you need a teacher but that is often another rider". Kjell spent almost all his career as a domestique but he doesn't believe that makes it easier for riders to listen to him but it does give him a different perspective, "it enables me to see things in a different way. If I would've been a top top rider it would've been more difficult. Everyone suffers the same whether you're the first guy or the last and you've been helping out".

Earlier in his career Kjell rode for the newly created team Sky who were famous for starting the "marginal gains" trend in modern cycling. "In 2010 they looked at marginal gains but they didn't look at the whole picture. When it started going good everyone else saw that and wanted to do the marginal gains and that's pushing the sport forward. You could say that if Sky never did the marginal gains then you would've needed less money to be winning as much. Now everybody is looking at marginal gains so everybody else is spending more money". With marginal gains, once a team develops a gain, wearing skinsuits in a road stage for example, it's often easy for other teams to replicate it, "somethings you can copy, it's not just about the material that you can get marginal gains from it's a lot about the skills and just doing things a little differently to what we did before. Some of those things they don't cost anything you just have to figure them out. At IAM we look at nutrition because the cyclist's motor has to be running on full. We look at recovery, straight after the race is it better to do some cooling or riding on the rollers and the same thing goes for the preparation before the race".

Kjell's greatest victory, a breakaway in
the 2008 Paris-Nice

As a rider Kjell would just fulfil his job and that would be it but as a DS he has the added difficulty of justifying sponsor's investment with results, I asked him whether it is possible to quantify a result, and if so would a stage winner have been more valuable than the top 10 overall at the Tour with Mathias Frank, "that's really difficult actually. The victory is always the victory so even if it's just one stage win the media coverage is so great that it's almost always better than a top 10. I would have to say that to quantify it a stage win is better. On the other hand our objective was to get a top 10, of course we wanted also to win a stage but there's not that many teams who can do both". For a team like IAM is it a case that you have to give up the top 10 to achieve a stage win? "Not necessarily, top 10 at the Tour is not something that you actually have to go all in for. We actually tried for the stage win with Mathias to Pra Loup but it didn't happen".

As we've said, Kjell's career was largely spent in the domestique role but he did have some chances to ride for himself and was encouraged to do this at his final pro team, Sky, "I think that Sky would've loved me do some more for myself but it's difficult making that switch back. Simon Gerrans he did well in that but he also has a little bit more of a winner's style than me". Having been on the side of the domestiques and the side of a protected rider I asked Kjell whether he found it difficult to ask riders to support him and how he felt knowing that 8 riders were sacrificing their chances for him, "Not really, I think most of the times you have to go for the best option and when you go for that option you go full gas. You don't go 50% or 80% you go 100%. You have to decide who it is and secondly you have to decide how to do it. You can have a second option but that doesn't mean you don't go 100% for the first option".

Throughout his career Kjell could often
be found driving the pace.

The current go to topic in cycling is power and as a relatively early adopter of the power meter I asked Kjell whether the amount of data that fans have access to at the moment is actually positive, "it's a good thing if everybody would have the knowledge to analyse the data and the problem is that there's not actually that many who can. You saw at the Tour the polemic that arose because even the so called experts weren't able to analyse it. I don't think Froome's numbers, obviously they were very special but I don't think they were that much more than everyone else". Kjell then went on to explain how knowing a rival's wattage would be advantageous to a team, "during a race it doesn't really matter. The thing is you need to know how he has achieved this number and then you can find some things that might work for you as well. If you just saw the power then it's not really a big advantage to you. If someone says that all the data should be public, I don't think that's a good thing because if someone has an advantage in training then they would be giving that advantage away. I think it would be different if it was stored in a safe place and some specialist would look at it. The biggest problem is that you can't always say that the power meter is 100% reliable because it depends on the weather and many different factors".

Most cycling fans would be able to name at most two Finnish cyclists, Kjell and Jussi Veikkanen. With the inclement weather and lack of racing it's hard to see where future cycling success will come from but Kjell is confident and passionate about Finnish cycling, "we have some good young riders who are showing themselves and we have created this project called Fincycling which is promoting cycling and trying to give young guys the funds to compete abroad. I think we are trying to do our best to move forward but it's not that easy. It's not the biggest sport in Finland but it's really really popular to cycle to work or as a hobby. I think in some years it will be different to how it is now and we're moving in the right direction". Finland is firmly in the developing nation category but would it benefit more from the presence of a UCI ranked race or a UCI ranked team? "I would have to choose both but if I have to make a choice I would go for the team because the team is something you can build around. You can get people interested in the team and the results and the results are constant throughout the year they're not just one time in the year like a race. It's also really nice to have a race because it gets the young people involved and it gives domestic riders a chance to ride against the big big names".

Since 2013 Kjell has swapped the bike for a more comfortable
team car.

At this point in the year Kjell shifts his focus away from purely racing and towards recruiting for the upcoming season but with such a volume of youth racing it's increasingly difficult to find hidden future stars, "we look at race results and use Pro Cycling Stats which is a great tool but then you also have to be scouting. You have to be looking at the U23 and the juniors and if you know them then you can even look at younger. At U23 they're a little bit older but you can really see how well they're doing". The other question is how much flexibility do management have when selecting riders for the next season, do they have to select Swiss riders because IAM is a Swiss sponsor? "No, not really. Of course the thing is that at the moment we have a lot of young guys and you can't have the whole team of young guys. We're not so much of a young team but we have lots of neo-pros so that can be an issue".

Kjell's racing career spanned three decades covering the most tumultuous times the sport has faced and he lists the anti-doping controls as one of the biggest changes he has seen. The other is less welcome, "there has been a real deterioration in respect for people and that is a bad thing. Maybe that's an issue with the world though because there seems to be less respect for people and things in general. Inside the peloton you have more crashes and more people taking stupid risks. It would be really really nice if the young kids were coming into the peloton and remembering about respect for other people. I think sometimes riders come up through development squads and think they've made it already but I also think that many riders are already so good so young and they have won so much throughout their career and so they are on a pedestal and they haven't been taught how to behave when they get to the pros. Before if you were a young rider the other riders would immediately tell you if you'd done something wrong and if you didn't understand the first time then the second time would be harsher".

Being first hasn't been something that has translated to his
quiz answers.

Having listened to Kjell for almost an hour it's clear that with his experience and softly spoken confidence the future of Finnish cycling and IAM cycling are in good hands. Kjell's position as one of two Finns who raced at the highest level is secure for now, and probably the next decade but in fifteen or twenty years that won't be such an exclusive club, that's certainly what he's hoping anyway.

Bike Route Hub: In 2011 you finished the Giro d'Italia, but can you name your team mate who finished behind you on GC?
Kjell Carlstrom: Behind me? That was a bad question! I would have to say that there was no one that finished behind me as a team mate. (It was Russell Downing, 1-0 BRH)

BRH: Who is the current Lithuanian Time Trial Champion?
KC: Saramontins? (Lithuanian, Kjell) Bagdonas? (It was Rasmunas Navaradasukas, 2-0 BRH)

BRH: Mathias Brandle set the hour record earlier this year but how far did he ride, to the nearest tenth of a kilometre?
KC: Ermmm, 51.185? (It was 51.85, 3-0 BRH) I got the right numbers but in the wrong order.

BRH: Thank you for your time
KC: Thank you.

Where Will Mark Cavendish Move Next Season?

Follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/BikeRouteHub and Twitter @SamLStandsUp

I'll start this article by explaining that the fact that Etixx have let Michal Kwiatkowski go to Sky means that there's significantly more money to spend on Cavendish's new contract combined with the rumour that the Manxman will take a wage cut and it seems fairly clear that he will stay at the Belgian team. If he does then is this the right move? And if not then where should he move?

Etixx - Quick Step

It's been a successful season this year for the Manxman
but where will he end up next year?

He joined in 2013 and had his second best season by wins, 19. Since then he's recorded 11 wins last year and 14 so far this year. At Etixx he's recorded 2 of his 5 best seasons by volume of wins but he hasn't seen the quality that he experienced earlier in his career. In the last two seasons he's only managed 4 World Tour stage wins, one of those in a Grand Tour.
The benefits of staying at Etixx are that he is the team's undisputed sprint leader so whichever race he starts he will have at least some riders protecting his interests. The team are also lacking a genuine overall contender, especially with Uran's recent decline.
The negatives of staying are that Cavendish could've won three or even four stages at the Tour this year were it not for substandard leadouts. Given that he's now been teamed back up with Mark Renshaw for the past two seasons it's a surprise to see these mistakes still happening. The question is, who can replace the Australian and will the emergence of Fernando Gaviria challenge the Manxman?

Verdict: Cavendish will stay for next season especially now that Kwiatkowski has left but if the results don't improve expect him to move elsewhere for 2017.

Trek Factory Racing

Nizzolo is a Grand Tour points winner, what will his role
be if Cavendish joins?

The rumour is that Trek are lining up a move for Cavendish. On the face of it there's good logic behind this move. Trek aren't a prolific team, they've only won 13 races so far this season, one less than Cavendish so it makes sense for them to sign a high level sprinter. The problem is that even as far back as Leopard-Trek they've never really had a sprinter in the team and the set up required to bring Cavendish is vast. Firstly they need to develop, or buy, a lead out man to support Cav. Then they need to develop three or four men with big diesel engines who can form a train. Will Cavendish want to risk a year of his career by going to Trek?

Verdict: It makes sense for Trek but, at 30, it's too much of a risk for Cavendish to move.

MTN - Qhubeka

Edvald Boasson Hagen was brought in with the hope that he
would find his earlier form, that hasn't happened. Can Cav
do any better?

The biggest question mark about Cavendish going to MTN is whether they can afford his near £1 million salary. The second question is whether they are in a position to take full advantage of his sprinting ability. They shouldn't have an issue with lead out men given that they signed a bevy of ageing sprinters for this year. They should also be in a position to beef up their lead out train if they decide to turn to the World Tour for next season. But there's a general lack of quality in the team at the moment.

Verdict: It makes sense to head to a team with no overall contenders but why risk this move at this point in your career? I could see him joining the African team in 3-5 seasons though.

Tinkoff-Saxo

Tinkoff has the cheque book to bring in Cavendish, but does
it make sense?

Personally I don't see this as a realistic option but I'm covering it here because there have been rumours. Oleg Tinkoff certainly has the purchasing power to bring Cavendish over to the Russian team but why would he? He can't support Cavendish at the Tour because next year will be all about Alberto Contador. Also, he has Peter Sagan who is a virtually guaranteed green jersey winner, although he needs to reign in his attacks if he wants to win a stage. After his experiences with Sky I don't expect Cav to ever go to another team that has a very strong overall contender, Tinkoff-Saxo might become a more realistic proposition once Contador has retired.

Verdict: It doesn't really make any sense as a move either to Cavendish or Tinkoff. Again, it might be a more realistic option in a few seasons.

Rising Stars: Nico Denz

You can follow us on Facebook - facebook.com/bikeroutehub or on twitter, @SamLStandsUp

You still have to do a lot of things when you're an amateur,
that changes in the Pro ranks though.

Ag2r are a very typical French team, they step up a level for the Tour and they tend to sign exclusively French riders. What many people don't realise is that they also have a development team located in the Alpine city of Chambery that has been producing World Tour pros like Silvan Diller, Ben Gasteur and Romain Bardet. It is with this team that the talent of Nico Denz was spotted and nurtured and it is this team that he will be leaving to pursue a career at the highest level with the senior Ag2r squad. I asked Nico how he thought this season had gone, "at the beginning of the season I was already sure of turning professional at the end of the season so I thought I would help my team mates to turn professional as well. So I took part in the races aiming to help my team mates and it went pretty well, I had some good results but not the big ones. I learnt that I couldn't help my team mates and be in position at the end of the day as well". This realisation sparked an attitude change that led to Nico trying to win for himself, "I put myself under a lot of pressure and it didn't work out. I told myself that I didn't have anything to prove but I did have something to prove, I had to prove that I could turn professional and that I deserved it. In June my season turned really good at the Tour du Pays de Savoie where I came 7th overall".

Nico is an all rounder but he's very
talented against the clock

At the start of July he then came 3rd in the U23 German National championships despite riding with no team mates, "It's really hard because when you are riding by yourself you have to be everywhere and close down everything whereas the teams can send men up the road and then cover the attacks".

After the troubles that German cycling has faced in the last few years it is in need of talented young riders like Nico. It seems odd then that his amateur career and now his pro career will be spent in French teams. "In Germany cycling went really unpopular around Ulrich and Armstrong and all the sponsors went out of cycling so it was really hard to find a team and at that time we only had a team in East Germany which is really far from my home on the Swiss boarder. My coach contacted the Ag2r development team in Chambery and I met them at the World Championships and decided to join". This year Denz has become a full pro from the 1st of August but last year he fulfilled the role of stagiare for Ag2r, "I got some nice results in the Coupe de France series which is the national amateur series. I got 2nd in a time trial and the overall of one and I won another one in July. I got the stagiare and I decided together with my manager and Vincent Lavenu not to turn pro straight away".

Looking out for the future.

Many cycling fans will have looked at the situation in Germany, where the Tour de France disappeared from German TVs for many years and question why Germans lost such confidence in cycling when France, Spain and Italy continued to love it. Nico has an interesting take on why this was the case, "it's different in Spain, Italy or France because it's a sport everyone loves but in Germany it's much less than football. In Germany we want to search for a villain and drugs they're not just in cycling they're everywhere in sport. I think as well that it was a big German icon in Ulrich who fell down and it was a German team, Telekom and I think it was just too much".

Nico is clearly developing into a very exciting talent and his plans for the future back up this talent, "in my first year I just want to integrate into the team and then I want to start winning, maybe not the first year but the next year I would love to win a race. In five years I would love to be at the start of the Tour de France". He has the benefit of being in the development team for so long which should aid his integration, "there are a lot of riders who have done it the same way as me, the farm team and then pro team so I will be seeing the same faces. I don't think it will be a problem". One thing is for sure though, Nico Denz will stand out in the Ag2r team and not just because he is a German in a sea of French riders.

Already a winner in Ag2r colours.

Bike Route Hub: At last years Poly Normande who was the highest ranked Ag2r rider?
Nico Denz: Ah it was Samuel Dumoulin? (It was indeed, 1-0 Nico)

BRH: Can you name the three national time trial champions at Movistar?
ND: Okay there's Malori from Italy, a Spanish champion......... (Not a bad effort, Castroviejo is the Spanish champion and Dowsett is the British champion 1-1)

BRH: How many Tour stages has Tony Martin won?
ND: That's a difficult one, he won last year a normal stage and this year a normal stage then how many time trials? He won one time trial last year, so 3, then in one year he won 2 so that's 5. Did he win any before that, I think two more so I'll go with 7. (Should've stuck with 5! 2-1 BRH wins)

BRH: Thank you Nico!
ND: Ciao