Bicycling: Life must be pretty wonderful for you right now. You just won Het Nieuwsblad, one of your country’s biggest races.
Sep Vanmarcke: It’s changed my career and probably my life. I always wanted to be good in the Classics. I knew I could be good, too, but winning was still far away. OK, two years ago I finished second in Gent-Wevelgem, that was a big result; but it wasn’t a victory. Now things have changed.
Bicycling: You were confident going into this year’s race and told Jonathan Vaughters, your team manager, that you wanted a leadership role. Considering the established riders on the Garmin-Barracuda team, that was bold.
Vanmarcke: Well, not really a leadership role—I just wanted to be free and not obliged to work early in the race because I felt good. I talked to Jonathan and (director of competition) Allan Peiper in the off-season, and they said I should really go for a big result in the Classics, to win one, or at least get a podium result. I was focused on that all winter, so I didn’t want to accept a worker’s role in a race such as Het Nieuwsblad. Jonathan said I had to stand up in the team meeting and explain that. It worked out.
Bicycling: That's impressive—a 23-year-old standing up in the team meeting before the season’s first Classic, saying “I want my chance.” Your teammate Heinrich Haussler won the field sprint and placed fourth. If you had not won the race, he could've been justifiably upset.
Vanmarcke: If I didn’t feel so strong in the race, I'd have told them and worked for someone else. That said, I wasn't sure I could actually win. I was in the break with Boonen and he was very strong. I knew I could finish second—but winning? I felt strong all week and needed to state my case. Jonathan helped me with that, as did my manager. And I know if I didn’t do it, I would have had regrets.
Bicycling: You were clearly one of the strongest in the entire field, and tactically you were the one who took the initiative at critical moments.
Vanmarcke: Yeah, it was great, but also sort of strange knowing that I was the strongest, or at least the strongest along with Boonen. That gave me a lot of confidence and helped me make the right decisions.
Bicycling: Going into the finish you were with Juan Antonio Flecha and Boonen. Did you think you could beat a rider of Boonen’s caliber, who has a good finishing sprint?
Vanmarcke: I thought I had a very, very small chance. I knew I could beat Flecha, but Boonen? Oh, that was going to be hard. But I remained focused on that one or two percent chance that I could win because, well, if you don’t think you can win, you shouldn’t be racing. When Tom started sprinting, I got on his wheel quickly, and that gave me confidence that I could beat him.
Bicycling: Boonen was the first to congratulate you. Did you guys talk?
Vanmarcke: Yeah, he said: “This is going to change your life!” Winning the Omloop was so amazing, but doing so by beating Boonen made it special. Everybody knows how good he is.
Bicycling: You grew up near Waregem and still live there, so you must know the roads of the Tour of Flanders well.
Vanmarcke: I won’t say it is my daily training ground, but I ride those roads a couple of times a week, so I know every street, every bump in the road.
Bicycling: How did you get involved in cycling?
Vanmarcke: My whole life has been about cycling. My father rode gran fondos and my siblings all raced. I'm the youngest of five, so when I was six I was always going to their races. And after the races I'd keep asking if they would do a couple of sprints with me so that I could pretend that I was in the races, too. So all my life, my whole life, it was all about cycling.
Vanmarcke leads Boonen and Flecha in the closing kilometers of the 2012 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. (Kristof Ramon)
Bicycling: Winning Het Nieuwsblad is going to change your life, but how will it affect your ambitions in the upcoming Classics, such as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix?
Vanmarcke: I hope the team will give me a free role. I don’t want leadership yet. That can wait for two more years, because when you've got leadership you've got pressure, and I don’t need that yet. If my leader is really good, I'll help him; but if I'm really good, hopefully he'll help me. You know, I’ll never be good in stage races. I don’t recover well like others do, and so every day in a stage race I just get worse. But I have always been up front about that with the team, and they don’t expect big results in stage races.
Bicycling: Flanders or Roubaix?
Vanmarcke: Both! I'd like to win both. But now I think I have a better chance of getting a big result in Roubaix. Flanders is just so hard, and I think I need a few more years before I can realistically think about winning Flanders. All the other guys fighting for Flanders are about 30 years old. I think it'll take me a couple more years before I can go for the win against them.
Bicycling: Garmin lost Thor Hushovd to BMC last year, but Vaughters actually thinks his Classics squad is even better in 2012.
Vanmarcke: I think so. On paper we had a better team last year, but this year it might actually be easier to win. Last year it was all about Thor. We had a lot of good riders, but in the end we were focused on Thor. This year we have five or six riders who are capable of winning in the Classics, guys like Heinrich Haussler, Johan Van Summeren, Martijn Maaskant, David Millar, Ramūnas Navardauskas, me, and I am probably forgetting a few. But if any of those guys get in the breakaway, they have a pretty good shot to win.
Bicycling: You rode on the winning team in Roubaix last year, with your teammate Van Summeren soloing to victory. You saw what it takes to win that race from the inside.
Vanmarcke: I rode well in Roubaix last year, so that gives me confidence too. I already know I can be good there.
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