When you walk into Alexander Kristoff’s home in Stavanger, the Tour of Flanders trophy is the sole accolade that sits upstairs. A nice bronze sculptured trophy resting just past the kitchen, to the left of the dining area. He sees it most days and it makes him smile.
It’s five years ago now but feels like yesterday when he edged Niki Terpstra on the line to win the gruelling 270km race. His finest victory and one of cycling’s most prestigious one-day races.
“It’s a beautiful art item, with a beautiful bicycle in bronze or iron. The meaning of it is part of the reason why it’s upstairs,” he told Sport360.
“I have all these pictures to look back on in my living room. I get reminded every day that I’ve had these wins.”
With all the downtime due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a chance for different sports stars to reflect on achievements to date and assess their next goals.
Fifteen years as a professional rider has thrown up many great days for Kristoff. Seventy-nine wins in total. Many great memories and lessons dotted in between those numerous triumphs.
On his rest week recently, Kristoff sat at home in Norway with his family. The view from his balcony, coupled with those long rides into the mountains, provides him with peace and happiness.
Living in Vaulen, a coastal town to the southwest of the country, presents an opportunity to train outdoors all year round. Compared to most cities around Norway, Stavanger only receives snow once or twice per year.
“It’s similar to England or Scotland. It can be maybe one or two weeks of snow. I can always go on my road bike except for one week of the year. It’s a great place to train. Five degrees and rain is not pleasant, but it’s better than icy roads anyway,” said the 32-year-old.
“We have good roads, a good variation where you can go into the mountains, or a flat area next to the coast. Usually, I prefer to go to the mountains because there is a lot of wind on the coast.”
When he is off the bike, Kristoff spends three days a week tackling weights in his home gym, in comparison to only one time a week during the racing season. He likes to keep ticking over, maintaining his fitness and feeling strong off the saddle.
Prescribed with a pre-season based type of programme, he battles through 90-minutes of work in the gym, before rounding off the session with five rounds of 10 minutes of interval training on the bike.
Outside, he does two or three sessions per week with effort, taking his road bike some days and using the thick tyres of his cyclocross bike to navigate the icy roads during the winter months.
“I’m a bit more on the bike now than I’d normally do in the off-season. In the off-season, I normally do two days a week on the bike outside doing long rides. I like the cyclocross bike as I like to change it up in the wintertime. Now I always ride a road bike. We also train bikes on easy days. I take a jog in the winter as well,” the Norwegian said.
“I feel like this training is better for the legs now than a normal off-season. I was expecting sore legs from all the gym work, but because I’ve been on the bike a lot, I think the legs are quite smooth so I’m happy with that.”
Having the legs feeling fresh is ideal, injecting that bit of sharpness for when the racing season does resume. A quick look at his achievements over the years shows many memorable wins, some most riders would dream of.
For any sprinter, it’s rare to have won more than 20 races in a season. Kristoff achieved this glittering feat during the 2015 campaign and has ended inside the top 10 in five of the last six years.
That recognition to be a top sprinter is largely due to his searing pace and favourable results in long, hard races. Ones that separate the boys from men. The average from the titans of the sport.
He’s won at Milan SanRemo, Gent-Wevelgem, Tour of Flanders, notched three stages at the Tour de France and came second in the World Championship. He’s reigned supreme in the European Road Race Championships, Hamburg Cyclassics, the GP Plouay and Eschborn-Frankfurt, the latter of which has triumphed on four successive occasions.
“The most memorable for me is the Tour of Flanders. I think it’s the biggest win I’ve had, and just the way I rode that day. Sanremo was the first really big thing I won. It was surreal, standing on top of the podium knowing I won a monument. These two stand out,” he said.
“My last stage on the Tour was the biggest place you can win on the Champs d’Elysees. It was unreal standing there on the top of the podium during the ceremony where they crown the overall winner of the Tour. It was a special feeling.”
Every season throws up different challenges and opportunities. However, the end goal is always the same. Push as hard as you can for the best of the team and, if you’re lucky, to be the man to cross the finish line in triumph.
He’s come close this season. In the early races, he netted second at Clasica de Almeria, clinched third on stage one of Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and sealed third at Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne.
On the Grand Tour front, he was due to race in the Giro d’Italia for the first time since 2012. It would have been the third time he raced in Italy’s most esteemed race, having competed in the 2011 and 2012 editions. The cancellation of the Giro means he will have to wait until the back of the year to test his mettle against the peloton’s elite.
“I never won there (the Giro) because I was young, but I got second place in 2012. I was hoping to get a victory in the Giro also but we will see what happens this year and whether they will change the race plan now since everything is mixed up,” he said.
“We need to find the best solution for when or if we start racing again. I need to be ready for the Classics that I can win if they come later on in the year, to get ready for (Paris) Roubaix or (Tour of ) Flanders if they are in October. At least I hope there will be races.”
Some riders improve into their 30s while others burn out earlier due to the rigours of the professional game. Travelling for eight months of the year can be testing mentally, given family life and other interests take a natural backwards step.
For Kristoff, there is plenty of racing left in his legs. He still loves it. Still believes he can keep going. His contract at UAE Team Emirates expires at the end of the 2021 season and there is hope to continue pushing at the highest level.
With two kids and two more boys on the way, most would throw in the towel now content after 15 years on the saddle. However, the determination keeps the Norwegian wanting to continue in his pursuit of excellence.
“I still hope to be a pro cyclist for a few more years. I like to be in the cabin with the family. I have a lot of work with four kids. I’ll always be busy. The teammates and Norwegian lads are really into stocks and the markets. This is something I’d like to look at in spare time or part-time,” he said.
