Frederik Wandahl is aiming for Tour de France

As a ten year old, Frederik Wandahl got his first taste for the Tour de France. He was in Paris with the family and followed the last stage of the classic bike race, which has been run since 1903 and which will be decided this year on July 5-27.

– When I started cycling, the main goal was Tour de France and it will always be, because it is the biggest thing in the sport, says Frederik Wandahl, 24.

The difference now is that he really does not want to be there and just experience one of the world’s biggest events – in that case he should be one of the competitors.

So far ahead, Frederik Wandahl is in his career and in mind about the future.

– I hope it will be very soon. Now I’m starting to feel ready, so I hope within two, three years anyway.

It was not obvious to start By bike as a little guy in Höllviken. But with two Danish parents, a father who competed at a high level at a young age, the culture was a little grand in the genes. And on the other side of the Öresund Bridge there is a country where cycling is as big as possible.

When friends trained football and ice hockey, Frederik Wandahl commuted between Höllviken and Copenhagen to test whether cycling could be his sport and it became.

Over time, it became obvious to start competing for Denmark and as a 19-year-old he signed his first professional contract. Now he is one of nearly thirty cyclists in the German stable Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe, which belongs to the top five in the world.

When we radiate one day in early May, Frederik Wandahl is just returning after running some competitions down in Europe. He is particularly pleased with fifth place in the Eschborn-Frankfurt one-day race over almost 20 miles. The competition is part of the UCI WorldTour, which is the highest category of competitions.

– I really like that kind of race. It is all or nothing, it must wear or burst, everything should work in one day. For six hours, only tunnel vision applies. You are so focused that you don’t even see how much audience is along the way, says Frederik Wandahl.

23rd at the World Cup in Switzerland Last year, and second best Danish, is a milestone in his career so far.

– Above all, how I completed the race and so it is a cool experience to be part of a world championship with all the best.

The next big step is to cave in a stage race over three weeks. The largest are Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España (Spain around) and Tour de France.

Frederik Wandahl would have run Girot this year.

– There has been a lot of training camp for it, then for tactical reasons chose to redo a little in the plans and then I got no place in the team. They wanted more auxiliary riders who are good on flat ground.

What are your strengths as a cyclist?

– As I see myself right now, I’m basically a climber. Then I also have pretty good tactical properties. It is one thing to get all the information via radio from the Sports Director, but sometimes you have to make quick decisions during the course of the competition and there I am quite good at making the right decisions.

Actually, there would be debut in Giro d’Italia as early as 2023, but Frederik Wandahl crashed and injured himself badly in connection with a height training camp in the Spanish mountain range Sierra Nevada.

– We had a little too high speed in a downhill run. When that happened, I thought that nothing was broken, but for safety we went to check it out at a sports center that is up there in the mountains. Then when the adrenaline settled I couldn’t get out of the car, so we had to go to the hospital instead.

The X -ray plates showed a fracture on the femur.

– It was still lucky that it was not the hip, because then I had probably been away for a year. Now it took four months before I could compete again. They operated me in a way that allowed me to start training earlier.

– People looked at me strangely when I went out on crutches and gave them to my girlfriend before I jumped on the bike and left.

The crashes are the worst, especially as cyclists are so unprotected besides the helmet.

For Frederik’s little brother Nicolai Wandahl, a severe crash became the beginning to the end of his career as a promising junior.

– He ran over on the Velodrome in Copenhagen and was pointed across the back of a piece of wood that was torn off the floor. He was stuck for several hours before they could get him off the floor and push him to the hospital. It was terrible.

Frederik Wandahl has injuries Here and there and still get hurt from the femoral fracture if he needs to go longer distances. But accepts the conditions and risks of elite sports.

– There are more days that are fun than are not fun. For me it is one of the best jobs in the world. I couldn’t imagine doing something else.

– The competitions motivate me the most. Then I like when I feel I get better and see how different training methods affect me. There are not many sports where you can push yourself so much. You think you are empty, but there is almost always a little more.

It seems that Frederik Wandahl is struggling. He is close to 180 centimeters long, but weighs only 60 kilos. It is good to be easy and it is easy to do away with everything he stops.

– You can push one and a half kilos of carbohydrates for a day when you compete. There are large quantities that are required and it is a balance you have to find.

Eternal cycling also has a different price. For Frederik Wandahl, the bike has become a work tool that he needs to be able to practice his profession.

– I have a regular bike too, but almost never use it. I hate cycling in my spare time, there is almost nothing I think is worse. Rather 150 kilometers of country road with a racing bike than cycling one kilometer to the store. Then I would rather go.