Sorry, was a joke.
Non joking: Quaade’s story was a(nother) tragedy about someone gifted immense (600W+ ftp!!!) talents who for whatever reason lacked the “intangibles” to translate his world-class physical ability into world-class results.
He was young during the film, so gets all the benefit of the doubt youth and inexperience deserve, but after winning the Danish U23 national TT and getting an invite to the national training program, refused to listen to coaching or engage with his teammates, trusting to his raw power to see him to victory. Recall him thinking other riders - including pros way more experienced than him - were “stupid”, and he would have to learn to be “stupid” if he were going to make it in cycling and get a contract.
As depicted in the film, he ended up blowing up in multiple road races, parked in the broom wagon, alienated from his team, and essentially out of the national training program and the sport. Yes, he was able to get his head straightened out to train his way to a silver medal in the subsequent World U23 TT championships in Copenhagen - which was an amazing story and the best part of the film - but that ended up being his peak. At 21.
He spent the past 10 years riding for 2nd or 3rd tier Danish-based squads. The closest he’s ever gotten to a major podium since were team bronze medals in the team pursuit in the 2013 UCI World Championships and in the 2016 Olympics. 10 years later he’s now 31 years old, he’s still hanging on, riding for a second tier Danish squad. His last strong result was winning a small dual TT in France in 2019.
I hope he’s happy in life, whatever he’s doing now, and proud of all he was able to achieve in the sport. And I think his mom and coaches were awesome. But I found his whole story immensely sad.