Interview with Kim Petterson, coach of the Danish team

Interview with Kim Petterson, coach of the Danish team

Kim Petterson is the coach of the Danish team. With Simon Andreassen, they have the world champion junior last year. This year Andreassen is one of the favorites in the U23. We spoke him after the Worldcuprace  in Zolder in December. And we did it again at Thursday, when they inspect the course.

Part one (after the worldcuprace)

You have got a dream team with Simon Andreassen and the other riders. What’s your ambition for the Worlds?

Kim :  Right now, we just improving, improving and do everything we can. We don’t have any official vision. We come here to investigate and to get all the information we could and do a good race as well. We take one step at the time. Right now, I haven’t talk to the guys about it. I talk a little about Simon about the Worlds. A lot of the guys focus at the nationals. The Worlds will be next.

The priority for Simon is mountainbike?

Kim: Yes, he just come back from a trainingcamp at Gran Canaria. He is an a good shape. Perhaps, he will take the podium for the Worlds, but we ‘ll see. He had very good legs today. He keeps improving, who knows? (smile)

Part two(Thursday)

What’s the goal for the Danish team?

Kim: The goal is to get some better results than we had last year. To keep improving, that’s my job to do. Last year we have five riders, now we have six. In Denmark, we are still growing. We have the biggest national championships I can’t remember. Hopefully, we do some good results and show it. Of course, Simon is very strong and he is the biggest  hope we have for a medal. But the juniors also are pretty fast. The Danish championship wasn’t as I expected. An other Danish rider, Christian won, he was so strong. He stayed home in December, just for training and focused at the championships. He is here now. I don’t know where to place him. We hope we have two Danish riders in the top 20 at the juniors. We’ll see.

The cyclecross is growing in Denmark.  Can you tell us more about it?

Kim: It keeps growing. There is a lot of people want to do cyclecross in Denmark. We have 204 riders at the Danish championships and a lot of spectators. There was a lot of people who made movies about this and set them on Facebook. There are many social media about it. It’s like giving sugar to a child. The Danish people like the atmosphere. It’s like they see it for the first time. There is a lot of riders focus on cyclecross. The competition is getting bigger and bigger and riders are improving. Even that, I have two riders and I don’t know who’s the best of them.

Are there also many cyclocross races  in Denmark?

Kim: There are cx races two times in a week. And also, and that’s quiet new in our country, a big group of riders without a license of the federation. Many riders will ride on a cyclecrossbike in their leisure time. There ride some small races. We have more 200 riders in a race. It’s like in America.

Kim, thank you very much. A lot of success this weekend!