What does an average day's training look like for you?
If I've got a strength session planned, I'll come back, have some lunch, a little bit of recovery time and then head off to the gym.
I’ll ride with other people as well because then you're following lines and trying to compete against them
What sort of things are you doing in the gym?
I'll do full body instead of doing two, three, or four gym sessions in a week where you split it down into muscle groups. My main lift is probably the trap bar, but I'll do quads, hamstrings and glutes, and then I'll head on to upper body and core. My sessions last around an hour, but sometimes get a little bit sidetracked from losing focus or deciding that a machine looks fun.
At the moment, it's two sessions per week. Over the winter, it's one because of cyclo-cross and then over the summer it's one, two or not at all depending on how it fits my road-racing calendar.
How do you use Red Bull as part of your training and racing?
I use it mostly between sessions if I have a double day with a ride and gym or two sessions on the bike. I also use it in my bottles on the bike during harder training days, as it helps me get a good caffeine boost.
In the winter, I had a Red Bull just before a full gas effort – so 90 minutes before a cyclocross race or 30 minutes before doing a time trial. I also used it for a sugar and energy boost straight after my race the other day.
How do you train for the technical skills required to race cyclo-cross?
A lot of it is just racing. It's quite hard in a training session to replicate exactly how conditions are in a race or how wide the corner is. I try to get one cross session in a week on a Wednesday but the area I live in in Belgium probably isn't the best place for that. I try and go into the north of Belgium once a month to get a good skills session in the proper cyclo-cross land of training and racing.
I’ll ride with other people as well because then you're following lines and trying to compete against them like you're in a bike race.
You moved to Belgium before the 2023 season. How has it impacted your training?
For the road, it's helped a lot and I'm learning where all of the races are. For example, Tour of Flanders is on my home training roads, so I already know where the exact route goes. It's really beneficial because I don't have to recon as much as some other people who don't live in the area.
Also for the cyclo-cross, I'm a lot closer to the races – it’s a maximum of two hours anywhere in Belgium so I don't have to travel far.
My turn-my-brain-off activity is building some Lego
How do you how do you go about building endurance?
It's different for me as a multi-discipline rider. A lot of my team-mates will build their endurance over the winter, go somewhere warm and do a load of hours on the bike. I'll be in Belgium racing at the weekend, so I'm not getting in a long ride. In the week, you also can't do three, four or five hours on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday because then you're a little bit too tired for the weekend. Most of my endurance is early spring and I try to build my form back up for the coming races. When I don't have races over the summer, it's also trying to get in as many hours as I can and enjoying the sunshine.
How do you avoid overtraining?
That's down to communication with my coaches, knowing how my body reacts to a bigger workload, and where the limit is. I'm still only 19, I've got a lot more years of my career to go and skipping one hour here or there isn't going to make me worse for the races, but it's going to make sure that I'm still enjoying riding and feeling energised in five-, 10-, 15-years time.
Do you do any other cross-training other than your gym sessions?
Over the winter I try and get a little bit of running in. I also need to try and incorporate that into the summer but it's a little bit harder when I've got stage races or I'm away on altitude camp. You have to do a lot of running in cyclo-cross.
The better I can be at that, the better I can be in a ‘cross race, and then the better hopefully, my result is in a race.
How do you recover from your training?
A lot of time on the couch and putting my feet up. But my turn-my-brain-off activity is building some Lego. The last one I finished was the Dodge Charger from Fast and Furious. I've not got anything lined up at the moment – I'm trying to save my money because it's expensive – but I'll set myself a goal of a result in a race and then treat myself to some Lego.