Rising Stars: Nico Denz

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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