RIDER OF THE WEEK – Svein Erik Vold

The 24-year-old Norwegian rides for pro-team Joker Bianchi. Also known as ‘the pro-factory’ as it’s where all the Norwegian pro’s come from. He lives in Stjørdal, about 30 minutes from Trondheim (which is where Mona lives, so obviously being from somewhere so close to her he’s bound to be one of the best riders in the world!?). His siblings and family got him interested in cycling, and also the great environment in the local cycling club, and he started cycling actively when he was 10 years old. When we asked him what he had sacrificed for his career he said; ‘I have sacrificed a lot, but I have been given, learned and experienced a lot more than I have given up.’ He says he absolutely loves being in the team, and everyone in and around the team are great people. They always have fun together, being good times or bad! A perfect 2010 season for him would be a few victories in UCI races, and also gradually increasing results for the team. He’d love to one day be part of a team like HTC-Columbia, Team Sky, Cervèlo Test Team or Garmin-Transitions. Difficult to pick just one favourite team here, but maybe if we tell him that in Team Sky they get blue M&M’s it will make it easier? And if you’re going to be a pro, you can’t stay in Norway, so he’d love to live in Italy or the south of France (where he surely will have the guestroom ready at all times for us to come stay, right?) And for our final question, we asked him which race he’d most like to win during his career: ‘Well, I wouldn’t mind winning Paris-Roubaix…’ So guess we’ll see you there!