Well, it's been a short while since the last Kulset Chronicles previewing Tour de France all the way back in June. Now just under a month after Johannes's journey around Italy & France, let's dive in and discover just what it takes to compete inside the Tour peloton whilst being the youngest rider in the race!
You experienced a lot of adversity during this Tour, it was probably quite overwhelming wasn't it?
Johannes Kulset: "Yeah I mean the Tour in itself is crazy with everything going on around you and also with things going on in my personal life. It was a crazy Tour de France and it is still a bit surreal to think about that I have actually competed in a Tour! When you are in the race you are really not thinking that this is actually the Tour de France. When you are done, you are like wow this was actually the Tour de France. My first race after the Tour, San Sebastian Klasikoa, was nothing compared to the Tour."
How do you actually feel about your first experience of the Tour de France?
"I have a bit of mixed feelings about it. It started really good. I felt super good when I came into the race but at the same time I knew that due to my crash on training camp in Sierra Nevada I was maybe not in the best shape. It made me realise I could struggle a bit later into the Tour. The first day was very good but then on stage two I had a pretty hard crash that set me down for the next week pretty much. I actually had a great gravel stage but then I got sick on the rest day."
I have to train more and compete in more Grand Tours to ride like the best guys are currently doing
"This meant I really struggled for the whole second week. On one of the days I think you could see me on television dropping before Fabio Jakobsen! There were one or two guys who dropped before me and they ended up being DNF's. At my worst in the Tour I was really suffering with sickness but then I got better in the last week. I would say it was pretty good, but I just wasn't strong enough. I felt that I had the shape but I was simply too tired. I mean I was looking at my power meter and it was not super good but yeah it was the third week. I have to accept that I have to train more and compete in more Grand Tours to ride like the best guys are currently doing because it is crazy what they can do in the second and third weeks."
How did you manage to push through all of your suffering?
"I was really just thinking about how much I had dreamed about competing in the Tour. It has been my dream for such a long time. I also thought about every other kid who dreams of competing in the Tour. I just really wanted to honour the race by being able to finish the Tour no matter the suffering, because finishing a Tour is huge. In my opinion it is pretty crazy that people are abandoning the race without any real reason. To not do your best when you are actually so lucky to be there is crazy for me. But I was really suffering, wanted to honour the race and other riders dreams."
What has the increased recognition felt like?
"It's been pretty crazy. Before I had around ten thousand views on my reels, now I think one of the reels has something like six million views. I know it wasn't my video but it is still insane to think about how many people actually now know about me!"
"When I am back here in Norway, it doesn't really feel like I am that famous and that's a really nice feeling. I would prefer to be lowkey and I try to not always have my team outfit on when I go out because then I would become much more recognisable. Of course since the Tour I have taken more selfies with people in Norway than I did before the Tour. I am not as famous as Jonas Abrahamsen, there's probably a big difference for him there. Just with the jokes that me and him were doing in that famous breakaway I think he gained around fifteen thousand followers just from that day. He is really enjoying all of the publicity, I am really happy for him."
What aspects of your cycling do you believe have improved because of the Tour?
"I would maybe say my positioning, especially the positioning you need for crosswind sections. If you can position well in the Tour de France then you can position in any race. One thing is that it is hectic but at the same time I feel like the riders in the Tour have more respect for each other. Just the power you need to produce just to kind of stay in position is crazy. The level is so high. So for me as a little guy to position on the flat stages is just super hard. For sure I would say that I have definitely improved my positioning and the fight surrounding it. I am still pretty new to cycling so I am not always the best but I really feel confident in my bike handling. Because of the Tour if I really go for it, I can position myself well. My climbing was not super good during the Tour as well so that's why I would also say my positioning especially in the gravel stage."
If you can position well in the Tour de France then you can position in any race
How has the team felt about the overall performance during the Tour?
"At the afterparty of the Tour we were actually asked by A.S.O. how we as a team felt about the Tour. Almost all of us said 4/6. If we had managed to grab a win then the Tour would have been absolutely insane. The Tour for us was really good though, but we didn't get a win. That makes some teams who got a win, such as TotalEnergies, look better than us. They are maybe even more successful than us during the Tour because they got a stage win even when you have not seen them for 19/21 stages, compared to our visibility which was almost every stage."
"For me the performance was not super good but one of the main reasons for me riding the Tour was to gain that valuable experience and I certainly gained a lot of that. I would say the way Abrahamsen rode, along with when Cort had the legs & Kristoff in the sprints with also Tobias crashing out of a potential stage win, it was of course very solid."
The experience of riding a Tour with Alexander Kristoff, what's that like for you as a first-timer?
"To compete in the Tour de France alongside Kristoff is just unbelievable because he is the person who I have looked up to since I was young. I mean he is almost twenty years older than me so when I was ten years old he won Milano - Sanremo and the year after Tour of Flanders. To be on the bus with him and just be with him for four weeks straight was amazing. He is really an 'alpha' but he is also incredibly friendly. You can learn so much from him. He's super chill but before stages he is 100% focus. The determination he has in the sprints is insane."
Did your resting heart race change after the Tour?
"At the moment it is still higher than usual. I think my body has still not one-hundred percent rested. Before the Tour I had between 38-42 but now I am averaging more along the lines of 45-48 still. When I was sick in the middle of the Tour I was actually up top 65 resting heart rate. That has gradually gone down. I think this shows that the body needs more time to recover to one-hundred percent."
Have you broken any of your power records during or after the Tour?
"Not even close! During the Tour the best power I did was probably a five minute effort where I was about ten to fifteen watts lower than my all time peak. That was pretty random as it was on stage 8 when Abra and the EF Education EasyPost duo were in the breakaway, then EF smashed it within the peloton. I was sitting pretty far behind so I had to go through the entire peloton because I was supposed to be ready for a breakaway. Apart from that maybe my twenty minute power on stage twenty was probably twenty watts shy of the peak. I was thinking coming into the Tour that I was actually going to break a lot of power records because I felt really good, but after the crash and the sickness I was struggling."
What did it mean to you to have your father, Vegar, roadside throughout the Tour?
"It was amazing! He's a really lowkey guy so he kinds of stays away a little bit so it's not any stress to have him there. He's never expecting me to talk to him before a stage for example but if I want, he is always there. When André Drege died during the first week, I really didn't want to race. We were not super close since I didn't know him that well, but the community of professional cyclists in Norway is small. So to have my Dad there and to hug him just before stage nine which actually turned out to be my best day of the tour. He really helped me through everything. Also when I was sick he really pushed me through it. In some way he was taking care of all things mentally for me. He actually used his whole summer holiday with me in the Tour de France while he would see me for an average of about two minutes every day. He did everything just to be there for me and it means a lot."
When André Drege died during the first week of the Tour, I really didn't want to race
What is your calendar for the rest of the season?
"I will have a three week training block after the Deutschland Tour. Then I will compete in the Tour of Luxembourg, similar to last year. Last year we had Tobias there so I was fully supporting him but this year he is going to the Canadian races instead so in the Luxembourg Tour I will probably have a free role. After that I will be going to the Italian races including Lombardia. I also hope to compete in the U23 World Championships as was the original plan but our federation is struggling financially so I haven't really heard anything yet."
A lot has happened in your personal life recently including you moving to Trondheim!
"Yes! Me & my fiancé have moved together to Trondheim, as she is studying here. We bought a new apartment here. My fiancé has been amazing, fixing everything. When I arrived here basically everything was all sorted, everything she has done I have been blown away. I am of course excited to try something new, moving to Trondheim although the weather can be a bit shit. Trondheim is really beautiful and the roads in the area are perfect for training, with a lot of elevation. My dad is actually originally from Trondheim so I am about two kilometres away from my grandparents and other surrounding family. That's pretty cool especially when Trondheim is so far away from Oslo it is great to have that support around me if I need it."
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