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OPINION

Sometimes I'm Jens Voigt

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Sometimes when I’m out on my bike, in my head I’m Jens Voigt.

Editor Tony and I saw the German Saxo Bank rider recently when we headed off to Rotterdam ahead of the Tour de France prologue. We could have probably gone up and said hello, but they say never meet your heroes… so I didn’t. We’ll leave it as it is.

To be honest, I don’t know tons about Jens, but this is what I do know.

• “Shut up legs” – that’s one of his.

• “Shut up body and do what I tell you” – that’s another.

• “I get paid to hurt people – how good is that?” Poetry.

• “Even if you only win one out of ten tries, that is one more than zero out of ten.” Philosophy.

• In a sport that’s chock-full of hard men, Jens is the toughest of the lot. He attacks. Loads. And if it doesn’t work, he attacks again.

• He’s 6ft 2in and 76kg of pure guts.

• The guy is pushing 39 but he’s still as scary as ever.

• He fell hard coming down the Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard in last year’s Tour and broke himself badly, but I kind of expect the road still came out of it worse.

That’s all the stuff I know about Jens, really, but that’s plenty. And that’s why sometimes when I’m out on my bike, in my head I’m Jens Voigt.

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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7 comments

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MalcolmBinns | 13 years ago
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I had the pleasure of meeting Jens earlier this year, and I have to say he's a fantastic ambassador for cycling and the sport of road racing. He's very funny and speaks with humility about what he's achieved. The legend rides on... http://tiny.cc/e6khx

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pedaling4pars | 13 years ago
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 1 ich liebe dich. if you are ever in cailifornia, come and join me. i will let you punish me on the bike..then i will show you how ladies get even--even par that is.-  1 your golf pro fan
sharon fletcher

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pedaling4pars | 13 years ago
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Hey Jens,

loved your interview..wow that was scary. If you are ever in california, you have free golf lessons--time to begin a real sport.

love ya
fletch

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Trev Allen | 13 years ago
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I am also a big Jens fan, what a hero.

I like your "the road came of worse" - sounds like one of those classic Chuck Norris quotes.

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vorsprung | 13 years ago
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I am the same height as Jens Voigt. If only I could loose another 4kg and be the same weight maybe I'd be as fast. In my dreams  1

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Fringe | 13 years ago
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no i'm spartacus, hang on thats Fabian C. isn't it.. so no im not.  39

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VecchioJo | 13 years ago
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hang on, i'm Jens Voigt when i'm out on the bike, we even have the same nose
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