UAE Team Emirates neo-pro Mikkel Bjerneau has shunned talk of competing in a Grand Tour in his debut season on the World Tour, saying he will take it one race at a time this season and focus on time trials and one-day races in Belgium early in the season.
"I want to do my best to perform well in TTs throughout the year and learn something from every race," the three-time U23 time trial world champion told Cycling News' Stephen Farrand at the Tour Down Under in Australia last week.
In the past two years, he has won the Tour Down Under.
Bjerg, who has spent the past two seasons with Hagens Berman Aktion, Axel Merckx's development team, said he will compete in his first time trial next month in Portugal's Volta Ao Algarve wearing a UAE Team Emirates kit.
"Right now I want to run the Algarve and then focus a bit more on the one-day race in Belgium," he said.
The 21-year-old Dane won his first U23 time trial world title in 2016 with the Giant Castelli Continental team; when the team jumped up to the pro continental level in 2018, he moved to Hagens Berman Aktion. He moved to the team and repeated his world champion feat.
Bjerg returned to Hagens Berman Axeon in 2019 to win his third U23 time trial world title and set the third fastest UCI hour record behind Victor Kampenaerts and Bradley Wiggins.
He signed with UAE Team Emirates at the end of the 2019 season and made his team debut in the Tour Down Under, finishing second to sprinter and fellow Hagens Berman Axiom alumnus Yasper Philipsen and teammate supported Diego Ulissi's GC aspirations.
"It was definitely a hard race here in the UAE.
"It was definitely a hard race here in the UAE. I really enjoyed this week."Bjerg said that while racing on the World Tour with UAE Team Emirates was "not that much different" from racing in Axiom, it was definitely a fresh start to the early season.
"It's definitely different racing in January when you're used to racing in March or something. I think I still have a long way to go to get to top shape."
Still, Bjerg said he is ready to get to work on what he hopes will be a long and prosperous professional career.
"Here in the World Tour, there are a lot of riders who have the ability to win stages and races.
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