• Wednesday, August 7, 2024 at 7:00 PM
Interview “Lovely.” It came out spontaneously, while Harrie Lavreysen did the cooling-down on the rollers with the gold medal of the team sprint on his neck. In the scorching Velodrôme of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, the Dutch trio had improved the world record twice on the final day to sovereignly prolong the Olympic title of Tokyo.
“I really enjoyed it,” Lavreysen emphasized. “We have been working towards this for so long. We rode our last race in April. After that, we had a long build-up to this Olympic tournament. The training camps were great. The entire preparation went well. Then we were able to taper for a long time and we spent a lot of time in bed.”
The last real effort was made by Roy van den Berg, Jeffrey Hoogland and Lavreysen two weeks ago during their training camp in Stravanger in Norway.
Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland. Photo: Raymond Kerckhoffs
Lavreysen: “After that we spent another week in Apeldoorn and then a week in Paris. We are back at the right time. I have to say that we always had confidence in a good outcome. The last training sessions on this track also went great. You hope that nothing goes wrong and that all three of us reach our level. We had a lot of confidence in each other.”
Yet Lavreysen is also surprised that the Orange ‘Bullet Train’ has dived under the magical limit of 41 seconds to 40.949 seconds in the race for gold and silver. “We have new material and the conditions on this track are very good. But even then, this time surprises me. We are driving 3/10 of a second off the world record. That is a wonderful start to this Olympic week.”
Of course, the Orange trio was the big favorite for the Olympic title. In the past six years, they became world champions no less than five times. Only in 2022, things went wrong on the track of these Olympic Games in Paris.
Still, Lavreysen doesn’t want to talk about relief. “No, that’s not really the feeling. In Tokyo we had to win because we were the overwhelming favorites. Because we had already won this gold there, the feeling that we could win now was more dominant. In addition, this hall belonged to the Netherlands today with so many Orange supporters. Very different from sprinting in front of empty stands in Tokyo. In Tokyo everything was new to me anyway and that caught me off guard a bit there. I’m enjoying myself a lot more now.”
Where Hoogland took it a bit easier after Tokyo, he also joined the team sprint again for one hundred percent after his successful attack on the world record in the kilometer. “We definitely lifted each other up again. In the last six months, Jeffrey has focused all his attention on Paris again. Just like he did for Tokyo. It was like old times. We were full of confidence and working very hard.”
Photo: Raymond Kerckhoffs
In Tokyo, the final in the individual sprint was a close call between Lavreysen and Hoogland. Now, too, Lavreysen feels his compatriot breathing down his neck. “Although I have no fear of ‘Jeff’”, Lavreysen emphasises. “Like I have no fear of any competitor.”
“You can see in the team sprint that the other countries are also riding very fast. The Australian Matthew Richardson is there and we certainly have to take the Brit Jack Carlin into account. You don’t expect much from the Brits for three years, but they are there every Olympic Games. They will also surprise you in the individual sprint. And I have never ruled out Jeffrey. I am very curious.”
After which Lavreysen concludes with the words: “I like this tournament. I’m very relaxed. It’s just wonderful.”
