WorldTour
An Australian in Belgium: Allan Peiper
A life for cycling: Allan Peiper was a professional rider and sports director and has now taken the next step. There are not many who can match his expertise - despite deep cuts.
For almost 30 years, things were pretty quiet on Berg Ten Houte. After the 1000 metre climb was regularly part of the Tour of Flanders in the 1980s, cycling largely avoided the climb for a long time. Only since the climb was renovated in 2018 - old asphalt replaced with new cobblestones - has it been back on the programme of the "Ronde".
For the past three years, there has also been a bench at the foot of the climb. "Sit and have a rest on my favourite climb", says an engraving on the backrest. Hundreds of people have been following this request ever since. Hobby cyclists following in the footsteps of the greats. And the pros too. Most of them take a photo and post it somewhere. Because it's not just any bench. It's Allan Peiper's bench. The Australian is regarded in the business as a strategic genius, as the mastermind behind Tadej Pogacar's first Tour de France victory, as an empathetic spirit who knows the needs of the riders.
Wedding present on the Berg Ten Houte
© Twila Federica Muzzi / Red Bull Content Pool
The bank was his wife Katrien's wedding present. "When we got married, she gave me a drawing of a cobbled climb in a forest with a bench," Allan tells the story behind it. "She had asked me sometime before which was my favourite climb here in the Flemish Ardennes. It wasn't until the evening that she told me that the picture wasn't the real present, but that a real bench was being made and would be installed for the next classic season."
Strategic advisor for Zak Dempster
Allan Peiper has been a strategic consultant for Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe since the end of last season. "When I stopped working as a sports director five years ago, I didn't think that teams would ever hire consultants, because most of them think they already know how to do it. That's why the role I have here at Red Bull is really avant-garde for a cycling team."
Allan Peiper
He continues: "To have someone like myself in a helicopter perspective, you might say, who has no real responsibility, who doesn't get bogged down in day-to-day nuts and bolts of the team, but who can sit in on all the conference calls, who can listen to all the conversations, who can read all the reports, who can see the bike races and can come with a different perspective of looking at things - to acknowledge that there's a place for that is really unique and big of the team."
Zak Dempster and Allan Peiper at the Omloop Niewusblad
© Twila Federica Muzzi / Red Bull Content Pool
In his advisory role, Allan primarily liaises directly with Zak Dempster. He not only shares a nationality with the Chief of Sports, but also a long and good professional relationship that began 15 years ago when Zak became a stagiaire in Allan's team, then Highroad. "Without giving him too much accolades, I can say, in my opinion, he's the best person I've seen in this role in all of my career," he says of his compatriot today.
What he can't yet have at the age of 38 is the experience that Allan Peiper, who is almost 30 years older, brings to the table. "I've seen a lot more. And I've realised in the last six months with the team that he trusts me and I can tell him what I think. He can do what he wants with it, be it in terms of the race programme, be it advice on how he behaves, speaks or reacts, or how I see the developments in the team or how things in the team could be adapted or changed."
Allan Peiper in talks during "Ronde" recon
© Maximilian Fries / Red Bull Content Pool
The two will be travelling together again for the Tour of Flanders on Easter Sunday and will follow the race in a few places. The "Ronde" also leads over Berg Ten Houte. However, the duo will probably not stop there, as the climb is not one of the absolute key sections.
When Dwars door Vlaanderen went over Ten Houte twice on Wednesday, Allan was there to follow the race from his bench. "I didn't recommend attacking there to get a bit more action," he says and laughs. But that's basically what this unique wedding present is all about. Having a place to spend quality time there.
Fighting cancer
"My wife said she would rather give me the bench now, while we can still enjoy it, than when I'm gone and it will only be a place of remembrance." Allan has been living with a diagnosis of prostate cancer for eleven years. He knows he can't win the battle. "Not any more. Unfortunately, the cancer has spread throughout my body. We have tried to balance quality of life and cancer treatment. But of course, every time you choose quality of life, you give the cancer a chance to grow again."
Allan Peiper on his bench on the Berg Ten Houte
© Twila Federica Muzzi / Red Bull Content Pool
The disease is the reason why Allan had to give up his job as sports director five years ago. "But what I can still do is use my brain and have an influence with my experience." Cycling is also a kind of elixir of life.
It's given me the involvement in cycling that motivates me and inspires me to keep living.
"So it's given me the involvement in cycling that motivates me and inspires me to keep living. And I think coming to a team like Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe and seeing the opportunities that exist here ... I kind of see this as a great place to end my cycling career.
Ten years as a professional
It had more or less started in 1977 at the age of 17, when Allan came to Belgium in the tow of a friend. "It was the perfect opportunity for me. In my age group, I had basically won everything there was to win in Australia. And it was a way to escape from my situation at home." Not everything went perfectly there.
After six months working in a factory, he had enough money to pay for the long journey. He found a home with the famous Planckaert brothers Willy, Walter and Eddy - "Ronde" winners and winners of the Green jersey at the Tour. A long period of illness took him back to Australia before he returned to Europe and turned professional with Peugeot in 1983.
Three years later, he switched to Panasonic, the best and most popular team of the late 1980s. He ended his active career in 1992. He only returned to the cycling stage in 2005, as sports director at Lotto. "I had tried it before, but in the 90s the teams in Europe were still very nationally orientated. Even if there were foreign riders, the Belgians wanted Belgian staff and the French wanted French staff. But with everything that was happening in cycling at that time, it was also a good time to be active outside, learn new things and then come back with fresh motivation."
Allan Peiper in his early years as sports director
© Getty Images
In addition to his feel for tactics and racing situations, which Allan developed precisely because, as he says, it was not his strong point as a rider, his greatest asset is his emotional intelligence. This also has its origins in his time as an active rider. "In the sense that I can put myself in the place of the rider and try to think how it is for them because as a foreigner I was always, often, the last one to receive something in the teams I raced for, the last one who was thought about. And what I've tried to do as Sports Director is to be there for everyone, whether it's with the race programme, setting goals, aerodynamic position or supporting them when things aren't going so well. Because everyone can cheer and jump up and down next to the podium where a champion is standing. But when things aren't going well for a rider, there are very few people who support them in their situation and try to understand how to make it better for them." It's about the individual.
More than just half Belgian
Allen has now been in Europe for almost 50 years. "I've flown to Australia 46 times in that time." He knows this very well, because it's the details that make the difference in cycling. During all this time, Belgium has always been the centre of his life. For a long time, it was Geraardsbergen, where his wife Katrien still runs the small Café Lathee, where cyclists often stay. They now live in Zwalm, a little closer to Oudenaarde, where the Tour of Flanders finishes.
"I'm still Australian, but I think the Belgian influence has more or less made me Belgian too, yes," says Allan. Why was he never drawn away again? "I ask myself that too. In my fascination with the First World War" - two of his uncles died in the Ardennes on the side of the Allies, but there are also indications that part of the family is of German origin, says the passionate genealogist - "I sometimes wonder whether I didn't have a past life in Flanders Fields."
I'm still Australian, but I think the Belgian influence has more or less made me Belgian too.
History aside, it's the passion for cycling that connects the Belgian population and Allan. "The Belgian population in Flanders has always been a farming society. Because it's such a small area, everyone always travelled by bike. To work, to school, to the shops. So cycling became a popular sport, and it was free, you could just go to the track and watch. On the one hand, the Belgians were always champions. But on the other hand, people also associate cycling with the sport of labour. And I think they identify more with the one who doesn't win because they feel the same way in their lives."
Allan Peiper
© Twila Federica Muzzi / Red Bull Content Pool
"Are you Allan Peiper?"
For Allan, this is the reason for the Belgians' love of Wout van Aert. "He's a real worker, even if he has won some nice races. But he's not a champion like Tadej." And there are similarities there too. "I'm recognised in Belgium, even though I didn't have a great career as a rider. People still appreciate me. And I get recognised: 'Are you Allan Peiper? That doesn't happen in Australia. Here in Belgium, I'm part of society - and that's a really nice feeling."
The Holy Week of Cycling culminates on Sunday with the Tour of Flanders. Even without Easter, it is a special holiday. "Because I'm in the thick of it all the time, it's sometimes hard for me to understand what fascinates the whole world so much about it. All these races. The sport of cycling. But it's a great way to live and it's been my passion. And I love being here."
