Interview : Maarten Wynants (EN)

Interview Maarten Wynants

37 years old, 15 years as a pro, 13 years of them in the World Tour. Maarten Wynants was the luxury domestique of champions like Tom Boonen, Stijn Devolder and Sep Vanmarcke. This years grand tour winners such as Tom Dumoulin and Primoz Roglic can rely on his services. A rider full of experience and today he shares some of them with us.

 

You've started in all grand tours. Which one of them did you enjoy the most?

Tour de France. It's the race that you dream about as a little boy. The attention, the spectators. Everything around it makes it special.

As a luxury domestique, you helped riders such as Tom Boonen and Stijn Devolder to big victories. Did such victory feel like an own victory?

The times that Boonen won Roubaix were special, especially because I had a big part in the victory and it gave me a lot of statisfaction.

You didn't win a pro race yet but you've been close a few times. Which race did give you the best feeling?

Roubaix 2012 where I could finish in top 10 myself in a monument, and the times that I finished second still feel sour because I've been close a few times and it could be carreer determing.

How do you spend your days during these corona times?

I keep doing 2/3 of my usual training. Further, I enjoy being at home with the family. I do chores and I work in the garden so that it's made up when we start pro cycling again.

You're currently pro for 15 years. Did cycling change a lot since you turned pro?

Everything became a lot more professional on every way : training, food,... Races are evolved more towards a fixed scenario except for the Flemish races.

How do you see the future of cycling?

A bit in the way that it evolved in recent years. The peloton is getting stronger and stronger overall. Hopefully there will be a better business model...

Which advice would you give to young starting cyclists?

Keep having fun and passion for the sport is the base and the other things come after when you keep working very hard and living for it if the neccesarly talent is avaliable. But that's for later.

  

Thank you for the interview, Maarten! Good luck for the next races!