ADAM HANSEN

Adam Hansen from Lotto Belisol was happy to do a quick Q&A after Stage 6 in the Tour of Turkey and answer some questions sent earlier in the week. Going into this stage Adam was sitting 6^th and 44 seconds down on GC. He is rooming with Andre Greipel but no real twitter antics from them yet.

from Kersten Steurbaut ‏@ksteurbaut 

The goals for Lotto this Tour was to have a stage win and Adam in top 10 for general classification

It has been a successful season so far for Adam with Mountains classification at the Tour down Under and 9^th in GC. 4^th in stage 5^th of the Tirreno-Adriatico

Q

Tirreno went well you got a 4th in stage 5!  You seemed to be happy with the result and there was a comment on twitter about why are you smiling about getting 4th. Your comment was everyone would be happy to finish that stage. Is there any more to that? You matched it with Alberto Contador on that stage did that have a part of it?

I think at anytime I could just smile. I went to Tirreno in not too bad shape but not in good shape, which was my intention.

Actually, then afterwards, I was a little upset that I was not at race weight as I believed I could have done better than 4th. But, I can’t be top shape in every race I do.

Q

So far two sprint stages at the Tour of Turkey but not a lot of success. Any Reasons?

It’s tough, Andre coming back from injury and doesn’t really want to sprint. Greg is also coming back from knee operations so we don’t have our normal team here.

Q

Do you have any personal goals for the Tour of Turkey

Yeah I do, top 10 was the goal. Now I write to you and this is after all the GC stages.

I thought I could have done better. In fact today, I made some mistakes, I should have just stayed in my group and no attack and that cost me greatly, but.... I’m a racer :D

Adam made a spirited attempt at the end to narrow the selection. Several attacks from him on the last climb into Selcuk were neutralised his final attack was a springboard for Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE) who won the stage and climbed into GC by the narrowest of margins

Q How is your preparation leading into the Giro?

Very, very good. Better than expected. I think, tactically I have done badly here and that is because this is all new to me racing for GC in good form. So with this form, I now have  going into the Giro. I am very much looking forward to the Giro.

Q

Do you have any personal goals for the Giro?

Stage win of course 

Q

It’s been a very good season so far What is you race program looking like beyond Giro. Is the three GT's still on the cards?

Sure, same as last year. Giro d’Italia, Ster ZLM Toer, Tour de France , Vuelta Espana, Team Time Trial and finishing with Tour of Beijing

I am hoping that the Ster ZLM Toer will be as successful as 2010 when Adam won the GC.

I think you would agree Adam is demonstrating that his focus into becoming a very successful 5-day stage General classification contender is progressing well.

Thanks and Go Adam!