It’s the stuff of legend, now. Back in 2018, a young Danish climber riding for the Continental team ColoQuick took the KOM on a climb called Coll de Rates, one of the preferred test ramps near the common training camp location south of Valencia. The team knew they had something special in the slight young man, and put together a team time trial up the climb during their team camp in an effort to show the rest of the world, and specifically bigger teams, what they were missing.
The rider? Jonas Vingegaard.
The idea was simple: Vingegaard’s skillset wasn’t always immediately obvious in the chaotic and often relatively short junior racing scene. But power is power, and WorldTour teams scout with far more than race results these days.
The team did it again in 2019, this time with Jacob Hindsgaul, who now rides for Uno-X Mobility. This week, the ColoQuick boys are at it again. At the squad’s usual Spanish team camp, they set out to take the Rates KOM back with a new rider, the 18-year-old Peter Øxenberg Hansen. It had been taken by UAE Team Emirates’ Juan Ayuso in early February. This was their climb, though. It could not stand.
The climb itself is 6.5 km, rising 340 m (1100 ft) at an average gradient of 5.2%. No Alpe d’Huez, but a nice, tough test. You can check out the Strava segment here.
Just like last time, the team set up a massive team time trial effort from the bottom. Lined up in roughly the order in which they were expected to survive the pace, each rider pulled until they could pull no more then swung off, leaving only Øxenberg Hansen.
The new KOM? 12:38 for Øxenberg Hansen, snatching the climb back from Ayuso by 11 seconds, and 24 seconds faster than Vingegaard and his then-teammates flew up in 2018.
Is Øxenberg Hansen the next Vingegaard? Who knows. His junior results are impressive: six podiums in his last nine races last season, and a sixth-place finish at the junior Liège-Bastogne-Liège. But if the goal is turning WorldTour heads, local junior races may not do it. This might.
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