Serge Pauwels is perhaps best known for being the Cervelo rider who dropped back from a two-man break to help out team leader Carlos Sastre on stage 15 of the 2009 Giro. Sastre had been worried that Ivan Basso was going to give him the slip, and so the decision was made.
But by the time the Belgian had sat up and waited, the Basso move had been snuffed out and Pauwels’ erstwhile breakaway partner Leonardo Bertagnolli was well on his way to a solo victory in Faenza.
Pauwels first rode pro for the Rabobank Continental team in 2005, followed by two seasons with Chocolade Jacques, for whom in 2007 he won the Mountains prize in the Tour Down Under. He then had a season with Topsport Vlaanderen in 2008, followed by a move to the ‘big time’ with Cervelo TestTeam for 2009.
This season saw him recruited by Team Sky and riding his first Tour de France, where he supported Bradley Wiggins and Edvald Boasson Hagen. VeloNation spoke to the man from Lier, Belgium during the week preceding the Giro de Lombardia, as the first year of his two-year contract with Sky comes to an end.
VeloNation: How do you rate your season, Serge?
Serge Pauwels: It was a ‘medium’ season; I expected to do better but was sick twice and had problems with my knee.
VN: In 2009 you rode your first Tour de France - were you satisfied with your ride?
SP: My Tour was not as good as I hoped it would be, I had stomach problems – there’s always been a reason this year why I’ve not been going as well as I would like. But I’m proud to have finished my first Tour and that I did my job.
VN: With your early season illness and injury problems, do you think you were ready for the Tour?
SP: I think so. I did the Tours of Luxembourg and Switzerland and went well – and I also surprised myself by how well I went on the cobbled Arenberg stage of the Tour.
Then I had the stomach problem and because the Tour is so hard every day, it’s very difficult to recover from illness during the race.
VN: You rode the Giro for Cervelo in 2009; how do the two races compare?
SP: The Tour is much harder, there’s more stress and there are no easy days at all. In the Giro, you get days when it’s a little relaxed, but not in the Tour…there, every day is tough.
VN: Bradley Wiggins’ Tour didn’t go to plan; was that a negative factor upon your morale?
SP: For me it didn’t make much difference. I was just trying to do my job as best I could and cope with my sickness. We had hoped he would go better; but a lot of lessons were learned and it was the team’s first year in the race.
VN: Which were the rides you’re most pleased with in 2010?
SP: I think Luxembourg and Switzerland were quite good, and I was top 20 at Plouay and eighth in the uphill finish at Limousin. And, as I said, I was pleased with how I went over the cobbles in the Tour.
VN: Are the management pleased with the team’s season?
SP: I don’t think there can be any complaint about the season. We won Het Volk, a Giro stage and had a lot of other wins. The Tour wasn’t as good as we expected, but it’s the beginning of the project , the team’s first year.
VN: What have you still to ride in 2010?
SP: I’ll be doing Piedmont and Lombardy, I rode them last year with Cervelo and they’re nice races.
VN: You are also studying, while racing. How is that going?
SP: I’m almost finished, I just have to write my thesis; I started out on an engineering degree but have switched now to economics.
VN: If you could re-run this season, what would you do differently?
SP: I wouldn’t change a lot, maybe I was too enthusiastic at the start, I went down to Spain to train for six weeks from the middle of November, but I think this year that I’ll do that a month later.
VN: What about a winter break?
SP: I have a holiday in Tunisia with my girlfriend; I’ll take a total of one month of rest and then in mid-November I’ll start going to the gym three times each week. I’ll also return to riding my bike, but just easily to start.I’ll start to put the serious miles in my legs after the New Year.
VN: Which luxuries do you allow yourself over the winter?
SP: I have a drink, I go to parties, I eat nice food that I can’t in the season, I go to the cinema with my girlfriend – stuff that I can’t do very often during the season but that I enjoy.
VN: What do you think 2011 holds for you?
SP: I still have to discuss that with the team, but it depends on which Grand Tour or Tours I’m riding – everything will be geared to focus upon them.