DÉNIA (Ekstra Bladet): 22 Danish riders running in this season at World Tour level, which thus has a large field than ever before.
The 22. rider in the assembly, which include, among others, world champion Mads Pedersen and stjernerytteren Jakob Fuglsang, is a 24-year-old Michael Carbel, who, with his mere presence causing a stir.
He has nothing done, which makes his entrance on the World Tour obvious to anyone. Some will be straight forward considering that Carbel has pulled free pass to the world elite. The statement causing it to gibbe in the young rider.
– Let me just quickly say, that I could easily mention more rabbits than me, which is pulled out of the hat through the years, says Michael Carbel, when he after a light workout and lunch meetings Extra Leaf on the sun-soaked terrace at the luxury hotel Dénia La Sella Golf Resort, in which NTT holds to.
Michael Carbel (first th.), leads under NTT's light training in Spain.
– I have provided stable, although I haven't won everything there is worth winning. I have done what I should, and I have performed at the level people have expected – and probably also often better than expected.
– My space here on the team have I done to deserve, says Michael Carbel.
He has been a professional before. In the two seasons he raced for the Cult/Stölting, before he took a season on Bjarne Riis’ kontinentalhold in Denmark. Then, he drove a year for the French prokontinentalhold, which today is called Arkéa Samsic.
I really felt that I'm in a whole year drove the arse out of the pants on the team, but anyway, I was just called up late in the season and was told that my contract would not be renewed, says Carbel.
– I see it as a year where I have not made the results of the DM (where he won the bronze, ed.), but when I developed me as a person and taught me even knowing.
– I was not a better cyclist by it. I was also not a worse rider. But I was a better person, says Carbel.
– When one is smoked down in kulkælderen, so when you get to a point where things just can't be worse, and then apply it on to find the strength to get up again. I was able to.
There is a blind trust between Michael Carbel and Bjarne Riis. Photo: Ernst van Norde
After his French adventure followed another season of Bjarne Riis, who in autumn asked Carbel a place on the World Tour in view. Time went by, without something concrete on the table, but Carbel relied blindly on Riis, he says, and rejected offers from other teams.
a Few days before the new year was, finally, a contract for signature, and since your ticket for the ongoing training camp was issued, he knew that it could not go wrong.
I went so just boarded the plane and gambled that there was someone who picked me up at the other end, says Carbel, which arrived as the new boy in class on Thursday and immediately got handed his new clothes and equipment.
– So you stand there in the room and trying on clothes and look themselves in the mirror.
– Keep your mouth shut, you think so. It's damn reality now.
It makes me proud, says Carbel.
– I've got a year to prove that it is justified, I have got a place at a World Tour team.
– I can easily sit here and say that I'm so and so good, but in the end is about to perform.
– I will not necessarily win great victories, but I must perform for the team. I must be the team's man and show that I'm there for the other. When I get the chance, is about to seize it, says Carbel.
Michael Carbel has been given a one-year contract at NTT Pro Cycling. The challenge now is to seize the opportunity. Photo: Ernst van Norde
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