Interview Silvan Dillier

Only a worldchampion could keep him from winning Paris-Roubaix and he won a Giro stage ahead of a future Milano-Sanremo winner. Silvan Dillier is an excellent team mate who sometimes can suprise the best in the world by himself. He's now riding for Alpecin-Fenix  where he's the lieutenant of Mathieu van der Poel in his Spring campaigns. Fully pro since 2014 and a lot of experiences to share with you. About short nights, beautiful jerseys, positive energy and so much more.

You took your biggest victory so far in the Giro d'Italia after a whole day in the front. Do you still think often about this memorable day?

I sometimes think about the Giro victory, especially in terms of not losing the focus on your main objective. Because that day was a big goal to go in the breakaway in this stage but at the start of the race, I had a flat. I had to change my wheel. I had to chase back into the peloton. From there I had to bridge over to the already established breakaway and then finally it turned out that I could win the sprint against Jasper Stuyven which actually wasn't an easy task but anyway, my manager always tells me now, this was a day from zero to hero, so I basically started the day completely against my favour but as I said if you don't lose your focus, you're still able to eventually achieve your goal.

The year after, you lost the sprint in Paris-Roubaix. Was it hard to fall asleep that night or do you easily get over disappointments?

For me it was mainly hard to fall asleep because I had so many nice reactions. I was overwhelmed by the many great wishes and congragulations that I got after this race. For me it was not at all a dissapointment. I lost against the current worldchampion in a sprint after a super hard race. I think it was one of my best performances ever so it was not a dissapointment at all.

Your Spring campaign was impacted by several injuries. How do you look back on your first months of the year?

The Spring campaign last year was impacted by a couple of injuries. I broke twice my collarbone but I always came back quite fast and quite strong so it was always challening to come back but I always had a great support from the medical staff from the team, from our performance staff who helped me to get back on track and therefore it wasn't a big problem in the end and I always try to find the good things in it so I had some time at home, I spent some time with my family, reset the training, maybe give the body some rest in a though season, though Spring so I always try to find the postive feelings even if it doesn't really look super positive at first sight.

What are your goals for the second part of the season?

Definitly the Tour de France and then afterwards we will see, what kind of race, I'm gonna compete and the worldchampionships are for sure a goal as well.

You were part of WorldTour teams for many years. Alpecin-Fenix seems to be a ProTeam with the qualities of a World Tour team. Do you also experience it like that?

I was for a couple of years always riding for World Tour teams and then when I came to Alpecin-Fenix, I knew that they have to do something good. They have to work like really professional, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to win that many races. But actually when I really joined the team, I was a big suprise for me because I never saw a team working that professional like Alpecin-Fenix and that was really suprising to me how the brothers Roodhooft handled the team, handled the staff, handled all the questions about materials. For me this was just topnotch.

How does it feel to wear the Swiss champions' jersey?

To be the Swiss champion is nice, is really special and I really like the jersey they designed for me so to be Swiss champion is something special and I'm always happy to wear the jersey every day. I think it's a nice jersey and I'm able to represent Switzerland in a different kind of way and I really try to enjoy every moment in the jersey.

You're one of the most experienced riders in the team. Do you often share your advice with the younger riders?

When it comes down to my experiences as a rider, there are maybe a couple of situations where I could help the team but honestly we have some really good sports directors who also find the right words in the right moment, help the team, the athletes to stay calm in maybe challenging situations and therefore it's just up to me to support the team goal, and to help win races.