Following Tom Danielson’s stage win and near overall victory at the Vuelta a Burgos, VeloNews’ European correspondent Andrew Hood spoke with Danielson from his home in the Spanish Pyrenean town of Puigcerda about completing his comeback.
VeloNews: Congrats on the stage victory, what were your emotions on the podium?
Tom Danielson: I was stoked. It was an awesome experience. I’m really happy about it. You prepare yourself to do it, but until you really do it, then the mind makes the connection with the body and then you start to believe that you can do this all the time. But you need that breakthrough and then your body follows your mind. It’s a nice feeling after so much hard work.
VN: This is your first win in Europe since the Vuelta stage in 2006, right?
TD: Right, and it’s also my first big time trial win. I’ve won the time trial at Qinghai Lake in China and I’ve won time trials in America, but this is my first big time trial win in Europe. I’m really happy to be up there, against guys like Valverde and Sánchez, both who are in good shape for the Vuelta. I was focusing on the key riders from the Vuelta and gave it my best shot. The bigger thing than who was there was really what happened in the race, the way that I looked at it, understand it and how to race it. The key to winning a time trial is not really all about pure power; it’s a lot of about where you put the power and how you do it. I’ve been mentally preparing for these experiences and working on it a lot for a long time. To actually do it in competition was great.
