Tour of Flanders: Patience pays off for Terpstra

Casual cycling fans might think Niki Terpstra comes across as confident, direct and slightly arrogant. That's the the reason the 33-year-old Dutchman isn't liked as much as some of his Quick-Step Floors teammates, despite the fact that he's been riding for the Belgian team for an eighth consecutive season.

After clinching the win in the Tour of Flanders on Easter Sunday with a superb solo effort, Terpstra hopes to finally have won the hearts of the cycling-loving Belgian fans, who know that only real 'Flandriens' can win both Paris-Roubaix [ as Terpstra did in 2014] and their Ronde. Terpstra tried to lure the fans by performing a few made-up lines on a Flemish tune, in his already typical post-race victory song. He emphasised that he's been waiting on this perfect day for ages, and while waiting he invested a lot in the team.

"It's unbelievable," Terpstra said. "This is so cool. I've always been dreaming about these races - Ronde and Roubaix - and now I've won both. That's just a dream come true."

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Terpstra then started his song in Dutch.

"I was building up, I was building up. Blood was getting to my head. It was love, love for cycling," Terpstra sang, and then afterwards explained his new post-race ritual. "Obviously it started in Dwars door Vlaanderen and now it's starting to be a hype. I figured to do something for the Flemish crowd. For some reason, sometimes I'm given a hard time in Flanders. Hopefully I've stolen a few more cycling hearts in Belgium."

Terpstra told reporters that during the race, while he was asking through the radio what his gap was, teammate Philippe Gilbert, who was marking the chase bid and eventually finished third, shouted in Terpstra-style that the Dutchman had to 'go with that banana', a Dutch expression equivalent to the old Nike slogan 'Just do it'.

Learning lessons from 2015

Running with the 'wolfpack'

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