Tulett overcomes injury concerns to seal Flèche Wallonne podium - 'A big moment in my career'

Ben Tulett's Ardennes campaign was put into doubt after the 24-year-old British rider abandoned Itzulia Basque Country ahead of the final stage, having dealt with the effects of a crash earlier in the race. 

When the Amstel Gold Race came around, and Visma announced that Tulett was unable to take to the start, those fears looked to be coming true.

With the added setback of Matteo Jorgenson crashing out of the Amstel Gold Race and fracturing his collarbone, the fact that Tulett was able to take to the start on Wednesday was a big positive in itself for the Dutch team.

“Yeah, actually, we were not sure if I would even start the race today, so this was a big surprise after my crash in Basque two weeks ago,” Tulett told CyclingProNet. 

“Things did not go so smoothly, so, yeah, we were optimistic for this race, and so I think this was more than we could have hoped for, so it's a really good end to the day, I would say, for sure.”

Ultimately, while Tulett could still feel the impact of his injuries as he climbed the Mur de Huy, it didn’t stop him from producing an excellent performance where he finished 3rd behind Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla). This serves as a confidence booster ahead of Liège Bastogne-Liège.

“Yeah, of course, I can still feel it a bit, but yeah, obviously, it did not affect me today. So, I think with this, it was for sure unexpected, and so I think we can be really happy and satisfied with this, going into Liège next week,” said Tulett. “Yeah, just to enjoy my first WorldTour podium, it is a big moment in my career.”

The key for the Visma rider was positioning, considering the steep nature of the Mur de Huy, and Tulett found himself positioned right at the front alongside Paul Seixas at the bottom of the climb. 

"Yeah, obviously it's such a hard final, that positioning is crucial to get a good result in this race, so we really focused on being as far up as possible going into the Mur [de Huy] and then from there on, the legs do the talking in this race,” said Tulett. 

“
It's quite an honest finish with such a brutal, hard climb.”

While Tulett isn’t getting carried away with the whole other level of challenges that Liège-Bastogne-Liège poses, the British rider cherished a welcome podium finish after what has been a difficult period since his crash in the Basque Country. 

“
As I said, it was a challenging couple of weeks, figuring things out with the recovery, post-crash in Basque, so, yeah, to finish it off like this already, two weeks later, is really special,” said Tulett. 

“I'm really thankful to my teammates for putting me in a good position, and with this, we will take confidence into Liège coming up.”