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In between the hushed tones and the soft laughs, Ilan Van Wilder has been talking with a level of assurance and ambition that belies his age and boyish looks. He’s rebuffed suggestions that he’s primed for a Sepp Kuss-esque role, and has made it abundantly clear that he’s not content being in the shadow of Remco Evenepoel, the other 22-year-old Belgian climber and GC star.
There’s a feistiness to him, an I’ll-tell-you-what-I-feel vibe. Then the conversation softens and it turns to the act of riding uphill; not the power he can push out or how many people he can ride off his wheel (answer: a lot), but the feeling that comes with climbing ever higher, the landscape becoming more vast and more impressive.
“Even when I’m on a vacation without a bike, I look at mountains a lot,” the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider tells Rouleur. “I’ll see one and I’ll imagine a road going up there; if I can see a road I’m wondering what it would be like to ride on it. It’s a passion, climbing.
“Each winter I go to Gran Canaria, not only because it’s good training, but because there are so many mountains nearby. I love those climbs where there’s lots of hairpins and you’re just riding left and then right. It’s super nice and the views are always amazing. I’ve done some really nice climbs in my life.
“Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am living the dream that I had when I was a kid. It’s easy to forget sometimes. There’s not a lot of young riders who make their dream come true so it’s important to remind myself from time to time of the situation I am in and to be thankful.”
There is one location, however, where Van Wilder isn’t so appreciative of: Asturias in northern Spain. It was there in late August that the blonde-haired climber earned widespread plaudits for his work in teeing up his long-time friend Evenepoel to take control of the Vuelta a España that he eventually won.
Van Wilder was exceptional, hence the comparisons to Jumbo-Visma’s Kuss, but he was in a world of pain. “You can ask every pro cyclist, even those who are specialist climbers, and they will say that they don’t enjoy those steep climbs. Not in training, not in races – not ever!” he insists.
“They’re just too steep and you can’t focus on the view. No, for me I like longer, steady climbs with some hairpins and corners. And…
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