Thomas De Gendt is one of cycling fans’ most adored breakaway attackers. Across a 16-year road career, he earned stage wins at all three Grand Tours – the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España – riding mostly for Lotto Soudal. He is now a gravel racer.
What was your first bike?
It was a rental bike from the team I joined when I was 10 years old. I don’t know the brand anymore. It was a steel bike, and I wasn’t allowed to have any shifting, so it was just the brakes and that’s it.
Did you follow pro cycling when you were growing up?
Not really. My brother was a cyclist – he did mostly cyclo-cross and MTB. When I was between 6 and 10 years old, I went to the cyclo-cross races to watch him and give him a bottle after the finish. Watching races on TV didn’t really happen [for me] until I was racing myself.
What other interests did you have when you were younger?
I played football, but I wasn’t really good at it. I always wanted to be a cyclist, but in Belgium, you could only start when you were 12. We found some kind of loophole to race in the Netherlands, because we lived very close to the border. All those races were really close by, so we started doing these races in the Netherlands from 10 years old until I was 14.
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Who was your cycling hero?
Jens Voigt was one of my cycling heroes. I liked his attacking way of riding. Some days he was a TT specialist, other days he was a really, really good domestique. It was like he could do it all. He won GCs of smaller races, stages of Grand Tours, TTs, and he did his job for the yellow jersey at the time. That was the kind of rider I wanted to be.
The Belgian won stage eight of the 2019 Tour de France with a 14km solo attack.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
What appealed to you about being an aggressive, breakaway rider?
It’s just the way I always raced from when I was younger, and I continued racing like this when I was a pro. It was my only way of winning. I’m not really extremely good at anything. I’m good at everything, but I’m not the best at anything. If the race went to an uphill finish, at least 30 guys would beat me. If it was a TT, some guys would always beat me. In a sprint, somebody would always be faster. But if I’m in a breakaway, then I can be one of the best.
What is the proudest moment of your career?
The podium in the Giro [Ed. De Gendt finished third at the 2012 Giro d’Italia, his second ever Grand Tour]. It was something special to be Belgian on the podium of a Grand Tour.
It was not really planned for me to go for the GC in that Giro, and even if it was planned, the aim would have been top 15, maybe top 10. It was really strange for me to be in Milan on the podium next to two great riders [Ryder Hesjedal and Joaquim Rodríguez]. The journey to the podium was three weeks of suffering. When you suffer, it’s one thing, but when you’re suffering and you’re there with 10 of the greatest climbers, it’s strange. Those three weeks are a really good memory.
(L-R) Joaquim Rodríguez, Ryder Hesjedal and Thomas De Gendt on the final podium of the 2012 Giro d’Italia.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
What inspired your transition to gravel after your road retirement?
I wanted to do something on the bike, and still ride with a goal. Just stopping and not racing anymore would be really strange for me, because I’ve been preparing for races since I was 10 years old.
I’m a bit intrigued by gravel races, like Unbound, which I want to do at least once in my life. It was the right moment to change to travel and just experience it for at least a year. If it’s something I’m good at, then I can do it for more than a year, but this year, I want to enjoy every race.
Do you have any ambitions you’d like to achieve with your gravel racing?
Before I started the season, I was aiming to be on the podium of one of the bigger races, or win a smaller race. But now that I’ve done six or seven races, I’ve let my ambitions go and I’m just trying to enjoy every race. The level is just as high as on the road. Gravel used to be a sport for failed pro cyclists and cyclists that retired, but it’s not the same anymore. The riders push the same [power] numbers as I did on the road for the last 12 years, and they train like they’re on the WorldTour. Some of them would even fit in a WorldTour team and perform well in a stage race.
