Interview | Mike Teunissen has few illusions left: "Biniam is better than me in every way"

Mike Teunissen, WorldTour rider since 2015, will be at the start of a pro national championship in his home province of Limburg for the first time in his career next Sunday. With his first win since 2019 and the victory of leader Biniam Girmay in Switzerland, he can already look forward with confidence to the weeks to come, with the Tour as his main goal in July.

IDLProCycling.com spoke the Ysselsteyn-born rider at the Tour of Switzerland, where he was finalizing his preparation for the months to come. "Much harder than in these races, whether it's Dauphiné, Switzerland, Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico, it can't be done either. Everyone is top fit for what's to come."

"I hope I can add another step and feel very good, but you know what it is? You can feel good at training, but then some Wout van Aert comes along and you know what time it is," said Teunissen, who is also under no illusions for the coming months in terms of individual performance. "Bini is better than me in every way, it's as simple as that."

Teunissen and his team Intermarché-Circus-Wanty did not ride out the Swiss preparation race, by the way. After the death of Gino Mäder, they chose to leave the round, although as a team they still processed the death of their colleague together.

Teunissen on Norwegian win: "Nice to feel like things are going well"

The now 30-year-old Teunissen already enjoyed a good period of preparation after a spring full of bad luck, with a stage victory in the Tour of Norway as proof. It was his first victory since that famous first Tour stage in Brussels in 2019. "That victory was a long time ago, so that was nice to experience. I absolutely hate riding in the cold, but it suits me," he laughed about his win in the stage shortened by snow.

Despite that victory, the experienced Teunissen does not bang his fist on the table within his team Intermarché-Circus-Wanty. "That victory is nice, but it is nicer to just the feeling that things are going well. If there is a result that is just a little bit easier. You put in a lot of effort every and then it doesn't come out in the spring. The only thing you can do is close down and do everything you can to turn that knob.

"If you then notice that things are going better, that motivates you of course," Teunissen continues. "And that in turn makes cycling much more fun, so that's what I try to do as best I can. to do that as well as possible." The fact that things didn't work out in his first months with his new team, therefore, gnawed at the Dutchman.

"Indeed, I talked about it with the team as well: when you are new, you want to make your mark," explained Teunissen, brought into Aike Visbeek's formation as an experienced pawn. I didn't come here just to ride along. They don't expect that from me and I don't expect that from myself either. Then it's also nice to do better than in the classics.

Swiss win did Girmay and Teunissen good: "Lots of confidence in him"

In the spring, by the way, the entire team was hit by the bad luck devil: front-runner Girmay with his hard fall in the Tour of Flanders. The Eritrean's victory in the Tour of Switzerland, therefore, came as welcome, states his intended lead-out. "It's been a while now since we've ridden together because of course he's had a concussion and been in Eritrea. The cooperation can still improve, but we will fine-tune that in the coming period. Things can still improve."

"We have actually been saying that all year, that he can secretly do that," Teunissen said when asked about his opinion of the mass sprint qualities of his leader, with whom he has a good relationship. At the Tour de France in July, they may do it together. "The results weren't there then, but now we're right. That's how it goes. We have a lot of confidence in him."