Adam Hansen from Lotto Belisol was happy to do a quick Q & A after Stage 6 in the Tour of Turkey last week. Going into this stage Adam was sitting sixth and 44 seconds down on GC.
He is rooming with Andre Greipel but there have been no real Twitter antics from them yet.
The goals for Lotto on this Tour was to have a stage win and have Hansen in the top 10 for general classification.
It has been a successful season so far for Hansen, with Mountains classification at the Tour Down Under and 9th in GC. Recently he finished and 4th in Stage 5 of the Tirreno-Adriatico. He posted on Twitter that everyone would be happy just to finish the stage, after pictures of him smiling circulated on the internet.
Question:
Is there any more to [the Twitter comment]? You matched it with Alberto Contador on that stage did that have a part of it?
Hansen:
I think at anytime I could just smile. I went to Tirreno in not too bad shape but not in good shape, which was my intention.
Actually, then afterwards, I was a little upset that I was not at race weight as I believed I could have done better than fourth. But, I can’t be top shape in every race I do.
Question:
So far you have not had a lot of success in the two sprint stages at the Tour of Turkey. Any Reasons?
Hansen:
It’s tough, Andre is coming back from injury and doesn’t really want to sprint. Greg is also coming back from knee operations so we don’t have our normal team here.
Question:
Do you have any personal goals for the Tour of Turkey?
Hansen:
Yeah I do, top 10 was the goal. Now I write to you and this is after all the GC stages.
I thought I could have done better. In fact today, I made some mistakes, I should have just stayed in my group and not attack and that cost me greatly, but ….I’m a racer 😀
Adam made a spirited attempt at the end to narrow the selection. Several attacks from him on the last climb into Selcuk were neutralised. His final attack was a springboard for Adam Yates [Orica-GreenEDGE] who won the stage and climbed into GC by the narrowest of margins
Question:
How is your preparation leading into the Giro?
Hansen:
Very, very good. Better than expected. I think, tactically I have done badly here and that is because this is all new to me racing for GC in good form. So with this form, I now have going into the Giro. I am very much looking forward to the Giro.
Question:
Do you have any personal goals for the Giro?
Hansen:
Stage win of course.
Question:
It’s been a very good season so far. What is your race program looking like beyond Giro. Are the three GT’s still on the cards?
Hansen:
Sure, same as last year. Giro d’Italia, Ster ZLM Toer, Tour de France , Vuelta Espana, Team Time Trial and finishing with Tour of Beijing.
I am hoping that the Ster ZLM Toer will be as successful as 2010 when Hansen won the GC.
He is demonstrating that his focus into becoming a very successful five-day stage General Classification contender is progressing well.
Follow Adam Hansen on Twitter: @HansenAdam
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