Vermeersch and Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates fire each other up: "We felt the urge to dive into cyclo-cross"

The road cyclists of Alpecin-Deceuninck returned on Thursday from their training camp in Spain, but by Saturday, four of them were impressively already at the start of the cyclo-cross race in Herentals: Mathieu van der Poel, Quinten Hermans, Gianni Vermeersch, and Timo Kielich. With three of them - four if you include Niels Vandeputte - finishing in the top ten, it turned out to be a great decision. IDLProCycling.com caught up with Vermeersch after the race.

Race organizer Erwin Vervecken explained how the cyclists, to his surprise, ended up on the start list. "Gianni and Quinten Hermans suddenly appeared on the start list, even though there had been no official request." Vervecken then decided to call Vermeersch. "Gianni said: yeah, we were just messing around with cyclo-cross and then decided to start here. They were kind of egging each other on that they were ready, even though they were supposed to train at home for another week after coming back."

With these words, we approached Vermeersch after the race, who confirmed it with a smile. "That's right. We had a bit of fun on the beach and then got the urge to dive back into cyclo-corss," said the friendly Flemish rider, proud of his eighth place. "It was quite successful. If you had told me beforehand that I'd be in the top ten, I wouldn't have believed it. It was a successful comeback."

Vermeersch felt his lungs burning throughout the race and is (of course) not surprised by winner Van der Poel

Successful, yet tough. "My lungs were burning the entire race," he gasped. "It was tough, but I had fun. I was able to ride well throughout the race, and my last lap was my best, so I'm very satisfied." What's next for Vermeersch? "I'll try to do as well as possible up to the Belgian Championships, and then it's back to racing on the road."

And about the winner in Herentals, Van der Poel, was Vermeersch surprised? "No, no," the corners of the former gravel world champion's mouth curled.