Lorena Wiebes – interview excerpt

We caught up with Lorena Wiebes of SD Worx Protime to talk about her start in cycling and then to really understand the process to winning Sanremo Women. This interview is available in full for our Cycling Hub members. To give you a flavour, here is a little of what we spoke about. If you would like to read this interesting interview in full join our Cycling Hub. In there you have access to exclusive interviews, exclusive member discounts and so much more.

Here is a little of what Lorena had to say:

Can we focus a little bit on Sanremo Women if that’s okay? There was so much build up to San Remo. It was the Monument that everybody wanted back after 20 years. Firstly, what was your preparation like? How many times did you go and ride parts of the course and take a look at it? 

Well, I stayed with the team after Strade. I also joined them in Binda. And then from Binda, the same evening we went directly to San Remo. stayed close to the Cipressa. On Monday I did one recon with Blanka Vas. And then actually every day till Saturday we did the key parts of the course and sometimes we rode it multiple times. I was rooming with Femke Gerritse and we watched back the men’s edition from last year and from two years ago. We really focused on the Cipressa and the Poggio. We looked at how the men do it, what happened in the downhill after the climbs and that kind of stuff. 

So there was a lot of mental preparation as well as physical preparation. 

Yes. I also did one really hard effort on the Poggio to see how it felt. On the Cipressa I did some smaller efforts to really feel the climb. I think it was quite helpful to do it a lot of times. At each point you know exactly where it’s more flat in the climb and mentally it was also better for me to ride. 

When you talk about efforts, are those efforts solo efforts or are there efforts where you might ask one of the team who’s a better climber than you to ride really hard up the climb. How does that work? 

Normally, before Sanremo, it was mostly solo efforts. But sometimes on training camps we also try to follow the better riders in the team or the better climbers. And sometimes we have training race simulations with the team. Then you do it more as a group. But most efforts in the end are solo. I’m also totally fine if I do sprint training and some girls try to follow me. 

We have heard about these famous Danny Stam training races at the training camp.  

Yeah, we normally have a training race. This year it was not possible because of the UAE Tour and Valencia.  But when we have them it’s pretty hard because normally the better climbers will be coupled to lesser climbers. You’re not allowed to drop your buddy halfway up the climb. So it’s actually nice. We also like the finals we do. Sometimes Danny can flick us in the finals because he’s also racing them with us and he tries to attack or something. He’s still going well enough to be competitive

Can you talk me through the Poggio, what was your mindset?  Who did you have around you? And then how did you ride the climb? 

We still had Femke Gerritse and Blanka Vas with us to do the positioning before the Poggio. Lotte and I knew we needed to save as much as possible for the climb. They brought us into a perfect position. We entered first. Blanka did as long a turn as possible. Then it was also up to the other teams to take over. That plan actually went pretty well. I felt that the climb went easier than I expected.  

Then I was more ready for the Poggio. I knew that there would be an attack at the part where Pogacar always attacked in the past. Juliette Labous went. I knew then that they would sprint for the corner. It was sometimes a bit hard to keep your position on the Poggio. Before you knew it you were in position 20. But there were parts in the headwind so it slowed down.

Photo: Courtesy SD Worx Protime and Getty Images