Aussie sprinter Steele Von Hoff quick to master trade as pro rider

STEELE Von Hoff concedes the step up to WorldTour level last year was bigger than he anticipated but he believes he is smarter for it.

Steele Von Hoff has built a solid launch pad for his season by winning the national criterium championship and proving more t...

AUSSIE sprinter Steele Von Hoff says he has emerged from a year of learning everything from how to position himself in a sprint to taking orders from the boss and dealing with the media, to embrace the pressure he has put on himself to win races this season.

The 26-year-old conceded the step up to WorldTour level last year (he was a trainee with Garmin-Sharp in 2012) was bigger than he anticipated but he believes he is smarter and stronger for it.

Now in the second year of a two-year deal with the US team, Von Hoff has built a solid launch pad for his season by winning the national criterium championship and proving more than competitive in this week's Tour Down Under.

The sprinter had three weeks off at the end of his 2013 season before his coach Mark Fenner sent him into the hills with the climbers from his former team Avanti Racing.

"I just hit it a bit harder so I went off with my old team for a training camp in Tasmania then to Bright in the hills for a week and really got things moving before nationals," Von Hoff said this week.

"I've tried to hit it (January) with a little bit more form this year and it allows me to have another little bit of a break before I head off to Europe.

"After last year I've learnt the ways and I'll try to get a few wins. I wasn't not trying last year, but I'm putting pressure on myself like I want to perform (in 2014)."

The Victorian described his first year on the WorldTour with Garmin-Sharp as "like doing your apprenticeship".

"And I'm still learning but hopefully I'll be able to get a few results this year as well.

Steele Von Hoff prepares for Stage 2 from Prospect to Stirling in the Tour Down Under this week. Picture: AFP

"Just connecting with the team, learning your role and what you have to do, then being around the team, how to behave in front of the media and how to treat people.

"Then there's all the tactics where the directors are yelling over the radio to you, you listen and take everything on board and try to do your best out of each situation.

"Some of the cold races I did - I don't really do too well in the cold - I was really hurting. But the level coming towards the finish is just so much stronger than in previous years.

"I get there (to the sprint) pretty legless but I'm slowly getting better and better and hopefully I'll feel stronger towards the end more often."

Von Hoff said he realised how strong the WorldTour peloton was when breakaways were given 10 and 15 minute leads before the bunch reacted.

"Since the guys are so much stronger at WorldTour level they can let a break go (for longer) because they can still get it back," he said.

"Rather than a break going out to 30 seconds and you think it's gone at NRS level, they can let it go to 15 minutes and say 'okay, we'll put a few people on the front'.

Von Hoff's sports director Geert Van Bondt said the fast man was in good condition last summer but had to work for American sprinter Tyler Farrar at the TDU which showed him "it's not an amateur race, now you come with the best of the best".

Van Bondt said he was aware of the difficulties Australians face adapting to a new home and environment in Europe, and that they were made harder for Von Hoff when he contracted a virus mid-season.

Steele Von Hoff before the start of the Peoples Choice Classic in the Adelaide CBD this week. Picture: AFP

"I think his level last year was up and down and then we saw in the Tour of Poland he was second twice, then he won the crits in Japan and he ended the season very well.

"This gave him the opportunity to look forward. I told him to have a three-week break and I know it's difficult for Australians to have a break because summer starts, you go home, your friends are calling wanting to go for a ride, so I told him 'stay, away, from the bike, for three weeks' and we saw in this year's nationals he was on the same level again.

"He has more experience now and more confidence and you saw that in the race (at Angaston) he came to the finish and was still there (with Greipel and Gerrans).

"He has the condition but more experience and knows what to do.

"You need to have the respect of other competitors, you have other teams who have to let you in and you see Steele with the points jersey and it will make it easier because other riders will respect him and give him more space where otherwise they might have boxed him out.

"Now they say 'Steele Von Hoff, he deserves to be in that place'."

Von Hoff will start as one of the favourites to win the Stage 6 criterium of the TDU, which goes around the Adelaide CBD and Victoria Square.

He then heads to Melbourne for next month's Herald Sun Tour before a training camp in Europe, the Three Days of West Flanders and Tour of Catalunya.