Winning Maikel Zijlaard was devastated by the stress: “Were the worst hours of my life”

“This is real crazy. I can not believe it.” These were Maikel Zijlaard’s first words in the flash interview, after his very surprising victory in the prologue of the Tour de Romandie. The 24-year-old Dutchman from Tudor defeated several world-class players in the streets of Payerne.

For Zijlaard it is a special victory in several respects. To start with, it is his first victory at professional level, and in a WorldTour race. Although he had to wait a very long time. “I started quite early. The last two hours were the worst hours of my life, because of the stress. I wanted this so badly for myself, but also for the team.”

“We are building so well,” Zijlaard refers to the last few years, in which Tudor managed to take the step from the continental to ProTeam level. “It’s great that we can now show this at this level. I am very happy that I can give this victory to the team.”

Zijlaard is known as a prologue specialist, but had he expected a good result before the start, let alone victory? “I know I’m pretty good at these kind of short time trials. I was definitely going for the win, but for it to work out… It’s simply amazing. It’s still quite hard to believe, but it’s reality.”

“I don’t have words for it yet. This is really a dream,” said Zijlaard, who will also start the first stage-in-line tomorrow as leader. “We are now going to take it day by day. We’re going to celebrate a bit tonight and then we’ll look back at tomorrow. I’m just going to enjoy my time in the yellow leader’s jersey.”