Interview Rüdiger Selig

Being the lead-out of a world class sprinter and a worldclass talent is the task of Rüdiger Selig this season. The experienced German sprinter will support Caleb Ewan & Arnaud De Lie in their journey to success this year. The Lotto-Dstny rider can also seize a few opportunities himself through this season after a covid infection held him back for some time last year. His carreer started 11 years ago when he won his first race, at the young age of 22. In 2023, he has a lot of experiences to talk about in this interview.

 

You won already your first race at the age of 22, what wasn't common at the time. Do you remember this race and what did you feel?

sure I will always remember that race. It was really special to me bc first I was still a stagiare in the biggest team at this time and second reason, it was the anniversary of my father’s death. So I had really mixed feelings but mostly positive. That was the little puzzle piece what was still missing to became a pro.

Last year you were part of the leadout train of Caleb Ewan, will that be the case this year again or we might expect you to support Arnaud De Lie often as well?

Mostly I will do the job as a leadout guy but for who exactly isn’t clear atm. I’m flexible in this position and also with my experience I can adapt to different sprinters and understand quick how they want the pre sprint preparation.

The team relegated to the ProTeam level last year, it's a big motivation within the team to win the ProTeam ranking this year?

The biggest goal this year is winning as much as possible races-preferred big ones! I think we’re not well placed in the second league so we will give our best to prove that. Especially with this team history and amount of victories last year.

What are your personal ambitions? Will you be able to sprint also for youself this year?

my goal is to start the year like it ended last year. I was really unlucky with covid infection and broken rips 2022 what took me long time to come back to my old shape. I had a great winter with lot of kms and I’m hungry and motivated for success. My special discipline is of course leadout, windy and flatter races but I also showed in Malaysia that I still can do a proper sprint ;)

You joined the peloton 11 years ago, do you feel that cycling changed since then?

yes of course cycling changed a lot. It was already pretty professional 2012 but now it’s freaking special. For example: when I became pro, it was usual that only GC riders and few helpers went to altitude camp before tour and now it’s absolutely normal to be more often during a season in altitude to have not only one peak a year. Or nutrition is big game changer. Watt/kg, threshold and loosing as much as possible weight are serious points right now. It’s not so relaxed and enjoyable anymore like 10years ago. But you see that also the quality of the riders and races changed because of that. That’s life-Stagnation means regression

What was for you the best organised race that you ever took part in?

That’s easy-2017 the Tour de France. Never joined such a big event where everything was well organized like there and that every day in a different village/city. And the „village“ with good coffee, hairdresser or snacks😅

You used to race on the track. Do you believe it also made you a better road rider?

I was one time German champion in the points race elite 2011 and then I had a long break unfortunately cause the teams where I was before didn’t like it so much (risk of a crash). But I really love the track sport and you can really see, especially sprinters, which where few times on the track improved acceleration and the speed during sprinting. The cadence and the load is so different compare to road cycling. It can only help to set new stimuli. Also for nervous situations in a final, overview, counting points and laps til the next sprint with a heartbeat of 195 is helping a lot for a road final. Had my highest heartbeat numbers over 1/5/10&20min since 10years 😂 So yes for me it was definitely helping and maybe this could be a part of my life after my road bike career.