Naesen delightfully describes what it’s like to race against "mutants" Van der Poel and Pogacar

We spoke with Naesen at the beginning of June, just before the Critérium du Dauphiné, which is considered the main preparatory race for the Tour de France. In the Tour, the 34-year-old Fleming will serve as the lead-out man for sprint leader Sam Bennett, while acting as the road captain for Felix Gall in the non-sprint stages.

Naesen was also clear about his own chances in transition stages. "In recent years, I’ve often been asked: Ollie, if an opportunity arises in a transition stage, can we expect to see you take it? Usually, a rider like me gets his chances in those stages when you've already been working for days or weeks in a supporting role. At that point, you don't always have a lot left in the legs, I have to admit. But take last year, for instance. There were three transition stages, and I was in the break each time. One time Matej Mohoric wins, the other two times we were up there with fifty guys, including Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar..."

"So then there you are. I can tell you, that doesn’t make you happy," continued the experienced Belgian with a smile. "I was in all three stages, everything went perfectly for my modest level, but that dream gets shattered immediately. It’s absolute madness." It’s at this point in our conversation that the specifics of the “madness” come up. In recent years, we’ve seen a trend of higher speeds, races breaking open earlier, and solo attacks from here to Tokyo. Van der Poel and Pogacar are two riders who notably excel in these areas. "Those two are just not normal," Naesen commented.

"They are simply so much better than the rest. We’re no longer talking about better bikes or anything like that. There’s nothing wrong with that. These guys are, in my opinion, born with some kind of mutation. It can’t be anything else. In the horse world, they always talk about 'the father of' on the sire’s side and 'the grandfather of' on the dam's side. In Mathieu’s case, that fits perfectly," he says, referring to family members Adrie van der Poel and Raymond Poulidor. "Mathieu would make a powerful horse! If you take a skin cell of his and look at it under the microscope, you’d simply see that it’s better than the rest."