Fresh off a stage win in the Tour of Alberta, Belkin’s Sep Vanmarcke will line up for this weekend’s Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal hoping to continue his successful run in North America. He has never ridden the GP Québec or GP Montréal, but he does have an impressive résumé in plenty of other hilly one-day events that reward aggressive racing. VH sat down with Vanmarcke ahead of the GP Québec.

The Québec parcours makes for a hard-to-predict race, but Vanmarcke feels that he and his team are well-suited to the event. “I like it, it’s different from last year’s, which will make it easier to control the race. I don’t know if that’s good for me or bad,” he told VH. “But we’ll see; it’s a really hard last three or four kilometers. I think I can get really far but we have to see. It’s really important to be in position the last time on the climbs.”

Belkin will most likely look to Vanmarcke and Bauke Mollema (who packs an underrated sprint) as team leaders in Québec. Vanmarcke’s current form should be an asset; he feels good about his level of fitness right now, noting that this time of year tends to be a good one for him.

“I’ve always been good in March and April, in the past, especially in the end of March and the beginning of April. End of June I’m always good. Beginning of July is also good. And then halfway through September I’m back,” Vanmarcke said.

With Worlds participation still up in the air and a strong team history in these races to uphold, Vanmarcke has plenty of motivation to make his first WorldTour events in Canada worth the journey. The upcoming World Championships are definitely in the back of Vanmarkce’s mind, giving him even more inspiration to do well here–especially with so many other big-name Belgians on the startlist also hoping to prove themselves before the team selection is made.

“Both [races] are important and of course I want to do well. I think it’s important, not for me . . . but for other people to see a result and that I’m ready,” he explained.

Vanmarcke feels like the strong season he has had already, with big results in the Classics and a very recent victory in the Tour of Alberta, should make enough of a statement about his readiness for Worlds as it is. Still, the Belgian roster for Ponferrada’s World Championship week isn’t completely decided yet, and more success in Québec or Montréal wouldn’t hurt.

“Last week I was good everywhere . . . and I won. That’s something to show my condition I think. You don’t win if the condition is not good. But yeah, it will be better if I get a good result here,” he said.

The World Championship Road Race isn’t the only thing on Vanmarcke’s mind, however. He is riding with Igor Decraene, one of Belgium’s most promising young cyclists who died suddenly at the beginning of the month, in his thoughts.

“All week I was with him in my mind. I made that goal that I really wanted to win for him, because I was really frustrated that I couldn’t be there at the funeral. Especially when his brother asked me if I was going to go there, I felt really bad. I really wanted to try something. I’m happy I won,” Vanmarcke said.

Mentally, to get a better sense of his form, and emotionally, as a chance to dedicate a major success to Decraene, winning in Alberta was an important result for Vanmarcke. It also gave him an opportunity to enjoy more aggressive riding, which isn’t something he always has a chance to do.

“It’s always important to win. I don’t win a lot. Classics are really hard to win, but I’m always getting closer. Stage races are sometimes so controlled and everything is going for a sprint, and then it’s a really hard final where I’m not capable of showing myself. . . . If you do something that might be stupid in other races though, there [in Alberta] it can be really good. In Alberta I was attacking all the time, every day,” he explained. “It’s impossible for me in, say, the Eneco Tour to try to be in an early breakaway. In Alberta . . . it’s different. It’s different racing, just full gas racing and there I’m better.”

Vanmarcke is approaching this weekend’s races in Québec and Montréal with a quiet confidence; he is reluctant to make any predictions about where he’ll end up but he does expect to perform.

“It’s the first time I’m here so I”m a little bit afraid to put numbers on it, but I think the race suits me and my condition is good, so I want to be there in the final and then it’s hard to say. I want to fight for the best places,” he said.

One major challenge facing Vanmarcke, and everyone else lining up here, is the strength of the startlist and the unpredictable nature of the profiles of both races.

“In these races it’s really difficult [to name a favorite]. There are really a lot. It suits riders of Flanders Classics. It suits riders of Ardennes Classics. And also stage race guys are here. I think I’ll have a chance for winning if I’m good, but Rui Costa, a whole different rider, is also thinking the same. It’s a big group of riders that can win, I think. Maybe thirty,” he said.

Fellow Belgian Greg Van Avermaet, also likely to play a role in the nation’s World Championships squad, is certainly among those favorites, as are a few other top-notch Belgian talents. Many of them have raced here several times before. With recent signs of form giving him a positive outlook, though, Vanmarcke is as ready as he can hope to be to make his debut in the GPs Québec and Montréal. He’ll know very soon just how well these races suit him, and if he does manage to land a good result, with the strong season he’s already had, he’ll have to feel good about his chances for a featured role in Ponferrada.

-Dane Cash

Photo by Marc.