Cycle Sport - Summer 2016

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Brit GC hope

Diego Rosa Ben Hermans Djamolidine Abdoujaparov

TOPEpic Tourstages of

the 1990sFrom Paris to

Sestrire

Trailblazer

FROOME V QUINTANA

Adam Yates

Sam Bennett

Alvaro Mejia

SRAMseTap gearson Canyon

UltimateCF SLX

BRAILSFORD INTERVIEW EXCLUSIVE

Or is Contador the real danger man?

2016 Tour de FranceEssential stage guide plusmountain profiles


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4 |SUMM ER 2016 |CYCL E SPORT MAG AZIN E

Summer 2016

034 Interviewwith SirDave BrailsfordThe man w ho took a new team to three Tour w ins

040 Chris Froomes TourmindsetH ow the double Tour w inner copes w ith the s tres s

054 Mechanic RyanBonserTeam Sk y mechanic on the crash w hich chang ed

his life for the better

058 SamBennettI rish sprinter on how he

hopes to g o one better

w ith a s t ag e w in in his

s econd Tour

068 AlvaroMejiahe w asnt the fi rs t

C olombian but he

show ed thata Tour

w in w as pos s ible

78 DiegoRosaThe man w ith the M T B - s ty le

celebrations could be the nex t big

thing ins tage racing

86 Tour de France 2016route guideTen pag e g uide to the 21s tag es of this y ears Tour

de France w hich starts on July 2

Contents.Features

Photos

ra

am

atson

u

uru

unada

O ne of the most dan gerous thin gs is thatyou start to become over-confident

Sir Dave Brailsford, page 39

Regularsent

44Adam YatesE x clusive interview w ith L ancashire prow ho lik es to k eep it s imple and race hard

Top 20 EpicTourstagesofthe 1990s

F rom P aris toS estri re

086

010 The ShotAr res ting imag es from the month

018 10Things this MonthNothing is too trivial

020 The BigStoryFroomei s look in g g ood

022 Fiveminutes with...B en H ermans

024 ProBikeTrek M adone Series 9

026 GrahamWatson writesArdennes clas s ics need revamp

031 Race ReadyB ontrag ers hoes and more

096 TheMonthFrom Romandie to Y ork shire

112 Bike TesteTap eq uipped C any on

120 Images ofCycling

The Tour from20 y ear s ag o

122 THE PUNKSAbdoujaparov

The Tas hk ent Terror w as

a true one- off


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6 |SUMM ER 2016 |CYCLE SPORT M AGAZI NE

DEPART |Welcome

Editor: Luke Edwardes-Evans

Editor-at-large: Kenny Pryde

Art editor: Callum Tomsett

Contributors: ChrisMarshall-Bell,Holly Blades,NickBull, Gregor Brown, StephenPuddicombe,Richard Abraham, Sophie Hurcom, Nigel Wynn

Photographers: GrahamWatson, Yuzuru Sunada,Andy Jones, Chris Catchpole, Daniel Gould

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hotline:If you have any problems gettingCycle Sportfrom your localnewsagent please phone 020 7261 7704. International licenceenquiries:Richard Benge +44 20 7261 7715, fax +44 20 7261 6304. Time Inc. (UK) Ltd 2015. This periodical must not, without writtenconsent of the publishers first being given, be lent, sold, hired out orotherwise disposed of in mutilated condition or, in any unauthorised coverby way of trade, or annexed to as part of any publication or advertisingliterary or pictorial matter whatsoever. Subscription rates for 13 issues,including postage, are:UK 66.92; Europe 132.41 euros; North America$139.52; Rest of World 102.72. Send orders and correspondence to:CycleSport Subscriptions, FREEPOST CY1061, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH163BR (No stamp needed)Cheques payable to:Time Inc. (UK) Ltd, CycleSport, 0969-2576, is published Monthly by Time Inc. (UK) Ltd, Blue FinBuilding, 110 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0SU, UK. The 2014 US annualsubscription price is $136.80. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by agentnamed Air Business Ltd, c/o Worldnet Shipping Inc., 156-15, 146th Avenue,2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA.Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica NY 11431.US Postmaster: Send address changes to Cycle Sport, A ir Business Ltd, c/oWorldnet Shipping Inc., 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica,NY 11434, USA.Subscription records are maintained at Time Inc. (UK) Ltd, Blue Fin Building,110 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0SU, UK.

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C ountdow n

The editor L uk e Edw ardes Ev ans

Tour fever starts roughly the same timeeveryyear. Just afterthe Tour ofItaly iswhen thebig names ofthe Grand Tourshave either shown their condition at theGiro or areemergingfrom trainingcampsand testing the legsin June.

The Girowasa fascinatingandexciting race, with enough changes atthetop to keep us guessing as to who mightstepup another level to surprise us in July.

If I hadtochooseonehighlightitwould bethe return atlastto the top level

of stageracing of Dutch riders StevenKruijswijk and Tom Dumoulin. The latterwas already up thereafter lastyearsVuelta and theres surely more to comefrom this all-rounder with the same style

and physique as Spanish Tour legendMiguel Indurain.

ThisJunewe will see how ChrisFroome, NairoQ uintana and AlbertoContador areshaping up for the 103rdTour deFrance. Going for the elusive thirdTour win, Froomehas shown flashes ofbrilliancethis year and he has theexperience and confidence to ensurehelinesup on July 2 in nearperfectshape.Lets hope so, as a historic third Tourvictory is some-

thing thateventhemostpartisan cyclingfans should notbegrudge.

NEXT ISSUE ON SALE: 29/6/2016


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Th e Gi ro dItali acrosses the spectacularPasso G ardena in theD olomi tes on stage 14Photo:Yuzuru Sunada

Shot...The


12/124


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German sprint kingMarcel K ittel lookedun beatable on stagetwo of the G iroPhoto:Yuzuru Sunada

Shot...The


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The break rides alongunder sunny skies inthe Am gen T our ofCaliforniaPhoto:GrahamWatson

Shot...The


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Ki rsten W ild (Ned)won the wom ens Tourde Yorkshire ahead ofG B s Lu cy G arn er (left)Photo:Andy Jones

Shot...The


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THIS MONTH

18 |SUMMER 2016 |CYCLE SPORT MAGAZINE

Screw you!I t w as heartenin g to see

Italian pros s tepping up

to Italian TV chainM ediasets

annualcyclists aredoperspre- Giro feature. Y ou can follow

me24 hours a day , ever y day , if

y ou w ant s a id M ov is tars

GiovanniV isconti.L ampres Sacha

M odolo offereds imilar access, as

did M anuel Q uinz iato o f B M C .

C y cling has chang ed, they insisted.

D isc brakes(Part3)Disc brakeson

roadbikes forWorldTourpros. Isthere anyone,anywhere,outside ofa majorbike andcomponentmanufacturers, who cantseewhats wrongwith thatsentence?Clue:the ridersdont want them.

D id you see the Giro?The Gironeedsmore viewersbutitsglobal reachisnt whatitshouldbe orcouldbe. Itseemsthattheorganisers soldthe TVrightstoIMG who asked

big money to potential buyers in different territories. There werent many takers.

W ords Kenny Pryde P h otosGraham Watson,Yuzuru Sunada

1

4

2

IAM. IWAScyclingConfirmationof

therumourthat SwissWorldTourteam IAMwaspulling out ofthesporteffectivelyextinguishedtherumourof a BMC-IAMmerger.Theyve beensaying that sincethe firstseason,sighedBMC sportdirectorMaxSciandri,beforethenews broke, itsnonsense.Not somuchamerger as a takeover then?

3

K ru ijsw ijk sLotto wi nStevenKruijswijk

had a stellarGiroandwas inthehappy position ofbeingattheend ofhiscontract withLottoJumboNL. Thetimingcould nothavebeenanybetter.Froma pro rider pointofview,it wasa bit like winning theLotto.

5


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CYCLE SPORT MAG AZIN E |SUMM ER 2016 |19

Nibali touring at the Tour?Vincenzo Nibali is planning to gotothe Tour to rideshotgun for Fabio

Aru . Going to the Tour with no pressure and noGC expectation willbe hardforh im, butits thebest preparation for theR io Games,saidNibalis coach Paolo Slongo. Unless, of course,Fabio Aru gets stage fight in his first Tour.

9

Not so specialMooching around theteam buses before theG iros moun-tain time trial, tech fiendswould have been disappointed.

The guysare riding thesame bikes they finished on yesterday in themountain stageat Corvara,said Team Sky mechanicRajenMurugayan, we just took off the second bottle cage.7

Elite sport is not the civilservice

Tr y to forg et ex - B ritis h C y cling coach Shane

Suttons attitudes. Ask insteadw hether w orld class

cycling (or sport) can function w ithout hig h-pressure,

emotionally - charg ed relationships betw een coaches

andathletes. M ay be thatfebrile atmosphere is

req uired to produce medals?

6

Saint Marco of CesenaticoP antan i poster s an d suppor ter s ar e ev er y w h er e in th e

G i r o . S om e st il l t h in k t h er e w as a co v er- up ar ou n d h is

d eat h , w h i c h w ou ld ex p la in t h e J u st ic e fo r P a ntan i Y este r d ay ,

today, tom or r ow r oadside plac ar d. In any c ase,c an b eatific ation

b e far b eh ind? I f t h e nex t P ope is Ita lian , i ts a done deal.

8

1 Henao keeping the faith

While his young brotherSebastian wastilting for thebestyoungrider jersey attheG iro, Sergio Henao was

training hard in the hope that the UCI would accept the explanationfor his blood values.

If he gets the all-clear, expect a big second half of the season forSkys Colom bian .


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TOUR DE FRANCE


Theres a fair chance thatas y ou readthis, y ou cant even

rememberw ho fi nishedfourth overall in the 2016 Giro,far

les s w ho w on the k ing of themountains . TheG iro is

indeed,a beautiful race,a monument of the sport and bey ond

any doubt,a fantastic addition to any riders palmares. B ut its

not the Tour is it?

The bes t rider s w ith their s trong es t teams in the peak of their

conditions tartthe Tourandw hoever w ins therace w i ll

g enerate publicity thatthe mag lia rosa of the Giro can onlydream about.T heTouris it,for better,for w orse.

W h ich is w hy C hris Froome,NairoQ u intana,Alberto

C ontador,Fabio Aru and ThibautPinotw ill turn upin Norman-

dy onJuly 2 w el law are thattheir respective seasons w i ll hing e

onthe fol low ing 21stag es .

E very thing thatthose riders has donein the 2016 season up

to that pointhas been leading to these threew eek s . I ts not a

state of affairs any one w ho loves cy cling can bethrilledabout,

throw ing so many other g reatraces and results deep into the

shadow s ,but w e have to be hones t .

In the end,itall comes dow n to three

w eek s in J uly .

Contador danger!Inearly January , C hris Froomew as

already talk ing about the Tour,his

lik ely rivals and the tacticals hift

thata B M C tw in-a ttack f rom Tejay

V an Garderen andR ichie Porte

mig htbring . Froome and Sk y

already have ex perienced this scenario thoug h,w ith Alejandro

V alverde and Q uintana atM ovistarand,in all honesty , he didnt

look lik ehe w as q uak ing in his baby blueSidis .

E ven back in January, another name seemed to occupy his

thoug hts rathermore Alberto C ontador.T heSpaniard has,

l ik e Froome,w onthe Tourtw ice (or, i f y ouarereading inSpain,

threetimes) andw ill head a redoubtable Tink off team, w ellcapable of helping him w in.

The s ig ns in the run up to the C riterium du Dauphine w ere

g ood,from theSpaniards point of view .

C ontadorhas raced les s than in 2015but w hen he has show n

upand sig ned-on,he has beenimpressive,neverfi nishing off

the podium. H e w as only four s econds f rom the w in atParis -

Nice,thenfollow ed thatw ith a stunning last- day victory inthe

V uelta Pais V asco beforehetook upresidency onM ountTeide.

Up until the Dauphine,C ontador had tick edalltheboxes.

W ecan be s ure that C ontador and theT ink of f s q uad w ill be

w ell- preparedand hig hly motivated.W ithC ontador announc-

ing his (poss ible) retirement and the team look ing for a new

sponsor, theres a lot r id ing on a s t rong show in g f rom E l

Pistoleroand his team. C ontadors posts on s ocial media have

ess entially beena series of s napshots of him riding his bi k e up

the side of a volcano hashtag g ed hardw ork or variations on

thattheme.

SkymachineB ack on M allorca in Januar y how ever Team Sk y w as already w ell

into its marg inal gains thing. O r rather it w as ag g reg ating everylittle piece of k now ledg e and potentially us eful information it

could on the 2016 Tour route.

From lik ely w ind direction temperature number of meters

climbed per stag e his torical data on w hat happened the las t time

a race pas s ed and more bes ides Sk y s taff w ere crunching data

and assi g ning numbers rating s to every stag e.T hey w ere try ing to

measure how sig nifi cant each day w ould be in determining the

outcome of the race and at w hat point it w ould be best to tak e the

y ellow jersey.

At the same time Tim Kerr is on

and the other coaches w ork ing w ith

Simon Jones w ere concocting

climbing intervals and w arm- up

strateg ies for s pecifi c stag es. T he

V ielha V al dAran s tag e nine that

bas ically s tarts up a mountain? Y eah

that one.T hats not g oing to s urprise

any body at Team Sk y .

Sk y w ould head into the s econd

Grand Tour of the y ear having

w atched a strong -look ing performance from M i k el L anda fl y off

the rails w ith a bout of g astric fl u but the B asq ue look ed lik ely to

s tart the Tour and if Serg io H enao g ets the all- clear from the U C I

then Sk y could fi eld its s trong est-ever team.

L anda has developed into poss ibly the second strong est

climber on the team s aid Sir D ave B rails ford at the Giro it w as a

real shame he had to drop out because I think he w ould havebeen a serious contender and he has made a big s tep forw ard in

time trialling .

So if he found hims elf up the road in a break that w ould

w orry the other teams for s ure becaus e I think they s ee him as a

threat now .

Given the balance of the Tour route and the increased

number of time trial k ilometers its hard to see pas t C hris

Froome as a hot favourite.

Fabio Aru w ill g et a real frig ht on his Tour debut neither Nibali

not Alejandro V alverde can be considered threats Q uintana w ill

be at a disadvantag e in the fl atter long er time trial and w ell w ho

k now s? Its the Tour and any thing could happen.

A m b ush r isk for C h r is

The BIG StoryKennyPryde,editor-at-largeIn the end, it all comes downto three weeks inJuly. Thats when the biggest names inpro cycling come together

to contest the 103rd Tour de France, and what an exciting prospect its shaping up to be this year

Q u in tana w ill b e

at a d isad v antagein th e f latter longer

tim e tr ialKenny Pryde


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CYCL E SPORT MAG AZIN E |SUMM ER 2016 |21

Normandystart, plus visits toSpain, Andorra and Switzerland

21 stages1 Mont-Saint-Michel Sainte-Marie-du-Mont 1 8 k m

2 Saint-L Cherbourg-en-Cotentin 1 2k m3 Granville Angers 222k m4 SaumurLimoges 2 2k m5 LimogesLe Lioran216k m6 Arpajon-sur-Cre Montauban1 7 k m7 LIsle-JourdainLac de Payolle 162k m

8 PauBagnres-de-Luchon18 k m9 VielhaValdAranAndorra Arcalis1 4 k m10Escaldes Engordany-Revel 1 8 k m11 CarcassonneMontpellier164 k m12 MontpellierMont Ventoux1 5k m13 Bourg-Saint-Andol La Caverne duPont-dArc 7 k m T T

14 MontlimarVillars-les-Dombes Parcdes Oiseaux20 8 k m

15 Bourg-en-Bresse Culoz 159 k m16 Moirans-en-MontagneBerne 206km17 Berne Finhaut-Emosson 1 4 k m18 SallanchesMegve 1 k m TT19 AlbertvilleSaint-Gervais MontBlanc1 6k m

20MegveMorzine-Avoriaz 1 6k m21 ChantillyParis Champs-Elyses11 k m

103rd

Tour deFranceJuly 2 2 4

2 0 1 6


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Q& A


Hermans coming back to form

in the 2016 Fleche Wallonne

Just one of many racers at BMC who look to thrive in classics andone-week races, Belgian pro Ben Hermans wants to return to his2015 form and bask in the hottest possible weather

WordsC hris M ar shall- B e llPhotoY uz uru Sunada

Ben Hermans

Five minutes with...

Three wins last year, did you feel likeyou had stepped up a level?

F or sure last season was my best y et.Its not easyto w in a r ac e and I won thr ee in qu ite a shor t

period of t ime so itwasgreat.

What was the story behind thosesuccesses?Ev ery thing came together.I had a good winter

good preparation and a good race program me.

I did P aris-N ice and Tour of C atalonia without

illness and I cam e out strong. I got good weather

in the classics in Br abantse P ijl and that was my

fi rst win.I had the shape and the confi dence to

c ar r y o n.

Wh ich victory was the mostimportant?Brabantse P ijl was the most special.Nor way was

also special because I really pu shed hard for 10

minutes and it ended up being one of my best ev er

power fi gures for that time.I ev en won in the rain

in Y orkshire and the rain isnt my special ity.

You dont like cold and rain?No.I dont know why but in the cold and wet I

can tr y as hard as I can but I perform a lot better

in hot weather.F orty degrees even 4 5 degrees I

dont care how hot I perform better. In Y orkshire

it was eight degrees and rain ing in the fi nalkilometres and I still won so sometim es I can

handle it.

You performed adm irably thi s springbut it wasnt as successful as last year, whyis that?I crashed at the G P P louay in A ugust and hurt my

back.A ll winter I had back pain and during

tr ain ing and the team c am ps I sti ll had a lot o f

pain.It has not been easy to com e back especially

not to the same lev el that I was at. Since [the T our


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40 degrees, even 45 degrees,I dont care how hot, I perform better

Ben Hermans on hot weather

of] C atalonia, Ive had my fi rs t race w ithout back

pain. I still s uffer a little but its g etting better. I jus t

need g ood form andg ood w eather now .

S o retur ning to for m is th is seasons goal?I w ant to w in a race but fi rs t I need to be back to my

old self. It doesnt matter w hich race I w in. W e

alw ay s do nice races so in every one I w ant to be

there in the fi nal and do a g ood resu lt. I can feel now

that it i s not easy to w in a race. W hen I w as w inninglast y ear, I didnt realise that it w as q uite special to

w in arace.

W h ats y o ur sp ec ialit y d o y o u t h in k ?Im more suited for one- day races. O ne- w eek races

of a low er UC I rating are doable for me, s uch as

Aus tria or the Arctic Tour and these are races I lik e

doing . I havent done a g ood result in L i g e-

B astog ne- L i g e until now but I think this is the race

that suits me best. M y best pos ition w as 22nd in 2011.

I hope to g et luck y in the future.

T alk in g ab out t h e c lassic s w h at w as th eteam s m o od lik e af ter G r eg V an A v er m aetc rash ed in F l anders?

The morale w as dow n. Y ou could feel w e w ere not

happy w ith the resu ltatF landers and then w e k new

Philippe[Gilbert] w as not in the best position for the

Ardennes clas s ics w ith a brok en fi ng er.

W e w erehappy thats omeoneperformed atFl che

W allone (Samuel S nchez , s i x th)and L i g e

(S nchez ,fourth).T heclassics w ere not as painfulaslas t y ear,but w e tr y to do better in the one- w eek

races.

W ev e h ear d y our e a good c ook ?I lik e cook ing healthy foodand this is one of the k ey

areas cy clists haveto k eep pay ing attention to.

I mak e g ood food.

Y our b est di sh ?I dont have a favourite, really . I alw ay s mak e

s omething els e. I cook a lot of different thing s .

HighlightsBen Hermans (Bel) 30Team: BMCPro since: 20082016:Fifth at Vuelta a Murcia

2015:Winner of Brabantse Pijl;

Tour de Yorkshire stage three;

Arctic Race of Norw ay stage

three;second overallat Tour of

Austria;third overallat Tour de

Poland;sixth overallat Tour de

Yorkshire

2013:Fifth overallat Tour Dow n

Under

2011:third overallat Tour de

Wallonie;eighth AmstelGold

2010:Ninth overallat CritriumInternationaland Tour of

Austria;Stage five w inner and

sixth overallat Tour of Belgium

2006:4th U23 Lige-Bastogne-

Lige

2004:Junior Belgian TT

champion


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PRO RACE BIKE

PhotosGraemeBrown

24 | SU M M E R 20 16 | C Y C L E SPO RT M AG AZ IN E

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K iel Reijnen is one of Trek

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W ashing ton s tate favoured the

meg a aero M adone 9 Series

THE RIDER:

KielReijnen (USA)Age:30

Height:1.75mWeight:63kg

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WheelsBontrager Aeolus 3

Handlebar/stemMadone XXX

integrated

SaddleBontrager Paradigm

ook closely at Kiel Reijnens team issue

Madone Series 9. Can you spot a singlecable or wire causing unnecessary drag on

this already legendary aero road machine?Or how about that one-piece stem and bar

combination that appears to grow organically upthrough the snub-nosed head tube? And thecustom designed centr-pull brakes which look like

the have been fixed to recesses in the fork crownand rear stays and then planed down even further

to ensure the smoothest, most snug fit possible.All new for this year the Madone 9 is the Ford

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latest RS the Series is a radically relaunched gamechanger which pretty much overnight hasre-written the rules for high performance aero

road bikes.Trek claims the 9 saves the rider 19 watts per

hour, or the equivalent of two minutes riding effort.The frame weighs less than a kilogramme and also

includes the US fi rms innovative IsoSpeeddecoupler located at the seat tube cluster acting

upon a round carbon seat tube inside an aero mast.Speed and comfort the 9 is a serious tool for a proriding the hilly Spring classics with full-on racing

on a variety of road surfaces.Reijnens team issue rig is pleasingly uncluttered

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L

Centre-pullfront brakesits flush to fork crow n


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The Madone is the Ford FocusRS of the bike world

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Chain catcher preventsunshipping and damage

Errant cable spottedbut its out of the airflow


26/124


COLUMN |G raham Watson

S

eeing how w ell M arcel Kittel and AndreGreipel

are sprinting inthis Giro,Id hate to bethe

Germanteam manager for theQ atarw orld

championships this O ctober.In recenty ears theresbarely been a problem w hen choosing riders for

courses. The top Germans are all sprinters and the

courses havemainly beenof a hilly nature.

Not so inpan-fl atD oha.Andre Greipel, w ith his

mix ofcraft, s peed,ex perience and dow nrig ht pow er,

has based his entire season onthe W orlds and could

normally ex pect to beleader. B ut now M arcel Kittel

has bouncedback to the form of his lifeto compound

thechoice as to w hoex actly w i ll be Germany s

protected man in D oha.

To s ee K ittel w in w ith s uch euphor ia after a

miserable2015, has made a g reatimpact on every one

fol low ing theGiro and in this sprinter- friendly

edition of the race many more battles aw ait.B utcomeO ctober,K ittel,Greipel not to mention a fully -recov-

ered JohnDeg enk olb w illhave someserious

w ork ing- out to do. The W orlds in Doha are Germany s

to los e.

Ardennesanti-climaxThe s prin g clas s ics ended w ith little more than polite

applause, s o dull w as theracing inFlecheW allonne

and L iege- B astog ne-L ieg e. E ven thoug h theex treme

w eather may have affected the racing Fleche w as

Graham Watson i e th rough a lensArace-snapping legend w ithmore than30 years onthescene and over20 books on pro cycling.Check his latest shots atgrahamwatson.com

After the Girothe season speeds up

BELOW:

Greipels return

to forminthe

Giromakes aWorlds

one-tw o w ith

Kittela

possibility


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blessed with 24C andsun, Liege was subjectedtosnowshowers,freezingtemperatures anda bitterlycold

wind a solutionhasto be found to ignite these twoageingclassics once again.

I thinkFleche,withitspleasantamble around thehillsand lanes above the riverMeuse, and thena finalsprintuptheMur deHuy, needs a completere-vamp. Itcanstillclimb the Murthree times(five wouldbe moretomyliking!)but itthenneedsto finishin a nearbytown like Spa,AndenneorNamur, thus relieving theevent of itscurrentpredictability.

TheBelgianshavenothing against AlejandroValverde,buthisrecord-breaking fourth winwasonemorethanEddyMerckxmanaged, a sore point formanyImsure. Once again, ASO fiddledwithitsLiegeroute this April,yet the steepcobbledascent oftheMur de laNaniotwasonlyjust enough to stop the raceendingina bunchsprint.

Itseems theharderthe coursesbecome, thelongertherace takes tobeginforreal, a strange habit thatneeds fixing, andquickly.

Epic RomandieThis mostrecenteditionoftheTourde Romandierepresented my19thyear ontherace and itwaspossiblythebestoneIve seen. Somehowtheorganis-ersmanagedtoappeasethesprinters, climbers androuleurs inthe spaceofjustfive days, and inweatherconditionsthat could easilyhavetriggered the

Extreme WeatherProtocolatleast three times.The technical prologuewenttoJonIzaguirre,while

stageone wastakenout byMarcelKittel ina thrillingmass-sprint.Nairo Quintanabroughttherace itsfirstsniff ofroyaltyafter anexquisite uphillbattleintoMorgins.ThibautPinot won hisfirst-everWorld TourTTatSion,andChrisFroome attacked from 40-kilo-metresout towin atVillars-sur-Ollon.

IfFroomesperformance intherain hadtheorganisers dancingwithdelight, itwasnothingcompared tothelast day, whenFroome attacked onthefirst hillwith170-kilometres lefttocreate thewinning escape and aid the final stage win by Swiss

star MichaelAlbasini. As always, the photographershad a fieldday.

Dutch delightOnce again,theDutchdidthe worldofcycling proudbyhostingthe Giro dItalia start somagnificently. Ithelpedthat thestart inGelderlandcoincided with thenationscelebrationofitsliberationafterWW11. Alongweekendbecame a little bit longer, andbroughthundreds ofthousands totheroadsides towatch andcheer asTomDumoulindid hisbitandwore the racesfirst MagliaRosafor thewholeweekend.

Wasthisbetterthanthe Toursstart inUtrechtlastyear?Yes,I thinkso,ifonlybecausethe Dutcharealltoo familiar withthe Tour yetstillsocuriousabout theGiro.And letsnotignorethe fact that the Girostarttookplace atthe convergence ofthree cities Apel-

doorn,ArnhemandNijmegen whereas Utrecht onlyhaditselftobringout thecrowds.

Id neverspent more thana dayinthis part oftheNetherlands before, andwasoverwhelmed bytheregionssimplebeautyin anareadominatedbythemighty Rhineandits manytributaries.Vastgreenforests, shadylanes, stunning bridgesandwind-blowndykes, not tomentiona fewspectacularwindmills allthisconspiredtoleaveanindeliblemark on anycycling fanluckyenoughtobe there.

I still thinktheGirosstartinAmsterdamin2010wasthebest-everDutchstart the noise ofthespectator-packed city and its love of cycling is a

It s eem s the harder the

cou rs es becom e the long erthe race tak es to beg in forreal a s trang e habit that

needs f ix ing and q u ick ly T h e A rdennes pro b lem

A B O V E :

Romandieput

ona show to

shame the

Ardennes

classics


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COLUMN |G raham Watson

hard act to beat.Y etnothing w ill ever beatthe Giros

s tart in I relandin2014 unles s , that i s ,New Y ork

becomes a Giro- s tarting city in the near future.

IntriguingGiroW r itin g th is at the s tartof w eek tw o of the Giro, theres

been a lotof talk the race has just four overall

contenders and thatthe presence of those four - Nibali,

Dumoulin, V alverde and L anda means this Giro is a

much lesser affair than in recent y ears.

Its hard to completely disag ree,but this is a strang eseason w ith the O ly mpics throw n in to the hectic

summer schedule thats tarts rig htafter the Giro ends.

The 9 9 th edition of the race has been the mos t open

for y ears and having jus tfour clear contenders made

it a very exciting prospect.

I ts not jus t about w ho w in s ,buthow the race w ent,

and few er s tar s sometimes mak es for a better race

jus t look at how B ob Jung els lit up the race at the

midw ay point. W ithoutthe benefi tof hindsi g ht, I m

g uess ing thatthe Giros fourbig s tars are g oing to have

fresh y oung competition from the lik es of Ilnur

Z ak arin and E stebanC haves, and even from older

talents lik e Poz z ovivo,U ran,andthenot- so- y oung

Rafal M ajk a and Steven Kruijs w ijk .

B ut w hati f Nibali fi nds himself inan off y ear, w ith

thoug hts ofa new team distracting

his motivation? L andalook ed

shak en after stag es s i x and eig ht,

thefi rstreal cl imbing stag es ,

w hereas V alverde w as as so lid as

ever.I w ouldnt bet ag ainst the

Spaniard g rabbing the overall

victory if Nibali w eak ens .

Tail end CharlieO ne of the defi n ing moments of

this Giro,so far,camenear the endof stag e s i x , the races fi rstreal

mountainous day .A 157 - k ilometre

s tag e s houldnt really trouble the

non- climbers, y etit did.

A 20- k ilometre climb to

1,4 00-metres, a freezing show er of

rain,anda mass ive tailw ind in the

valley delivered almos t the entire

peloton to the foot of the Are-

mog naclimb.T hen the g roup

ex ploded,literally ,s pitting w ell

over one- hundred cy clis ts out of

the business end of the race.

Its a raredelig ht w hen,starting from theback , y ou

w eavey our moto among st ,aroundandthenaw ay

f rom the s uf fer ing mas se s and mak e y our w ay to the

headof the race.I w ork too,in such circumstances,

snappin g off imag es ofmy clients teams , as w ell as

dropped s printers, g rumbling domestiq ues , panting

over- 3 0s , and a few strug g l ing cl imbers.

Then its to the front w e g o, in time to s ee the fi rs t

realattack s of the Giro and to try and decipher w hich

moves w ill lead to w hich result.

BELOW:G ir o

fav ourites led b y

V alv erde righ t),

C h av e s and

N ib ali w ith

K r uijsw ijk ,

Z ak arin and

M ajk a b eh ind

Giros farcicalTTWhen theextremeweather

protocolis betterdefined and

applied, thereshould be another

element added.

The stagenine Giro TTwas a

completefarcethanks tothe

rainthat fell for the last two

hours.Hats offto PrimozRoglic

for his win,andtothenext five

finishers,allofthemfast, big

menwho deservedtheir hour of

glory. Butfor theGCriders,the

ones that fight itouton eachand

every stageof a Giro,be itfl at,fast, mountainous or just rolling,

theoutcome wasa major

disappointment.

Thisstage shouldhave been

declarednull and voidas far as

theGCgoes. Bettertoaward the

stageresult as itwas,but to

relieve theoverallcontenders of

any loss orgain and tokeep the

GCfrom stage eight.

Some ridersfell,some got

scared,BobJungels andAndrey

Amadortookrisks butstill didnt

win. Andsome just threw away

their chancesofwinning theGiro altogether it was that bad.

Ex treme resultSom e th r ew aw ayth eir c h an c es of

w in n in g th e G ir oRain-hit Giro TT


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32 |SUMM ER 2016 |CYCLE SPORT MAG AZIN E

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34/124

INTERVIEW


Sir Dave Brailsford is the man who put one of the most ambitious teams ever onthe road in 2010. He was a key player in the formation of Team Sky and, so far,

three historic Tour wins. cle Sport spoke exclusively to Sir Dave

WordsK enny P r y dePhotosG rah am W atson, Y u zu ru S unada

How to win theTour three times

Tour de France 2013, Chris Froome celebrates his first Tour win

with with Dave Brailsford (centre) and Nicolas Portal


35/124


W

hen it comes to building a Tour-

w inning team, Sir Dave B railsford

k now s more than a thing or tw o.

Y ou can tell them w hat y ou w ant,

y ou can encourag e people, y ou can

use carrots or y ou can hit em w ith a stick .

H itting them w ith a st ick w il l w ork , but it w ont be

a pleasant environment and the results y oull g et w ill

be very erratic and it w ill be diffi cult to plan.

There y ou have it. The secret of how to as s emble a

w inning Tour de France team. Its carrots people,

carrots that the riders g row for themselves .

C learly there is m ore to w inning at Team Sk y than a

s upply of root veg etables rich in beta- carotene and

B railsfords focus on motivational carrots has been

tempered over the y ears .

I us ed to think , much earlier in my career, that

talent times commitment eq uals s ucces s . B ut Id s ay

thats chang ed. C ommitment is clearly s till a mass ivepart of succes s , but y ou could probably s ubstitute that

w ord w ith hung er, desire, purpose or drive thats

w hat y ou need to g et the best out of y our talent, adds

B railsford.

Talent and commitment are not enoug h. W hat is

req uired is a s tructure that can tap into the individuals

motivation as w ell as a structure built around them to

help them achieve their g oals .

Y ou have a rider w ho say s O K, Ive g ot a talent and

I w ant to w in something big and thats w here w e, as a

team, come in and say , rig ht, This is w here y ou w ant

to g et to, this is w here y ou are now , and tog ether w e

need to fi g ure out the bits that g o in betw een thos e tw o

points .

So far, s o straig htforw ard? Stating the bleeding

obvious , all riders are dif ferent and all of them are

motivated by different thing s . Sometimes a rider w ill

need a bit more stick than carrot to g et him to w ork .

In the end thoug h, B railsford is convinced that a

rider ow ning the process and tak ing res ponsibility

and accountability for their ow n g oals as a pro cy clist,

is a major factor.

Thes e are profes s ional relationships that w e have

at the team, these arent personal. And there are times

w hen people dont unders tand that or g et confus ed

betw een a pers onal and profess ional environment.

A family is based on pers onal relations. O ur team and every professional team is bound by a

profess ional code of conduct. H ow ever, in order to g et

s omeone fi red up, y ou need to g et them hung ry , y ou

need to mak e them w ant to achieve w hat they ve told

y ou they w ant to achieve.

And therein lies the trick . Y ou need to g et people to

train w ith a purpose. Its not jus t about g oing out in the

w inter, its about g etting on y our bik e and training

k now ing w hy y ou are doing something.

Y ou need the rider to be riding along think ing , Im

doing this because in three months time, Im g oing to

be doing X , Y or Z . Its by doing that that the g uy s


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36 |SUMM ER 2016 |CYCLE SPORT MAG AZIN E

INTERVIEW|Sir Dave Brailsford

w hoarehung ry , w hohavethe desireand are really

eng ag ed in w hat they are doing , w ell, y oujust set them

off and all y ou have to do is g uide them

Tough loveB rai ls ford manag edtore-alig n Team Sk y s focus and

philosophy from being totally behindB radley W ig g ins ,

to eng ineer ing acoup d tat w h ich saw W ig g ins

s idelined and Froome ins talled as the teams Tour

leader in 2013 .

From being totally behindW ig g in s s 2012w innin g

effort,B railsfordhad to reg roup the team behind

Froome,a very differentcharacter.

Y ou k now , I s pend mos to f my timeth in k ing about

people andm anag ing them.T he architecture of the

team chang es all the time and its lik e having k ids, y ou

k now ?

Y ouhaveto haveone st y le of parenting for one k idand then,all of a sudden,i f y oudo thes ame thing w ith

thenex t one its a bloody nig htmare.B utthefi rstone

w as O K. And theres nobody out there w ho can tell y ou

how to do it r ig ht.

O f course thereare people outthere w hocan g ive

y ou advice,but y ou cant phone upa g uruto telly ou

w hat to do,those people dont ex ist.In the end,they ve

g ottheir ow n characters and y ouveg otto beon the

ball, w atching all thetime,being aw are ofthedy namic

w ithin theg roupand if y ous w itch off at any point in

time,then y ou can lose the g roup.

Its that football analog y , losing the dress ing room

anditonly tak es one.Andi fa bunch of g u y s are upset,

sooner or later one g uy w ill turn round andk ick back

andw hen onek ick s out, then everyone else w ill k ick

back too.And theny ou are inreal trouble.

W e g otpretty closeto that. B ut y oulearnfrom it,

y ouneed to befi rm w ith people,y oucantpander to

them,but if y ou are fi rm and straig ht w ith them, it

u sually w ork s out.

B railsfords q uest to create the ultimate Tour-w in-

ning team leads him w hereverhis mind and curios itytak es him.T hus, for ex ample,atthe close of the

season,hemi ghtas k h is sportd irectors to draw up a

list of their dream team for the Tour,reg ardless of

w hether they areinthe s q uad or not.

I tel l them to w rite dow n theoptimalTourde

France s t ructure. H ow many climbers w ould y ou

have? W hat w ould their q ualities be? W hataboutthe

res t of the team? W hat s ortof balance do w e need?

O utof thecurrentpeloton,w hoarethe best riders in

thosepos itions ? W ho fi ts thoseroles per fectly ? And

y ou arent just g oing to havenine leaders, are y ou?

E x ercises lik e that help to g ive every one a

I tell th em to w r ite dow nth eir optim a l T ou r de

F r an c e str u c tu reBrailsfords DSs end of season quiz

ABOVE:

Brailsfordis a

hands-on

manageranda

regularsighton

thepro scene

RIGHT:The

pleasure and

relief are

obviousasBrailsford

embraces

Froome inParis

afterhis second

Tourw in last

year


37/124

CYCL E SPORT MAG AZIN E |SUMME R 2016 |37

These are professional relationships thatwe have at the team, these arent personal

Sir Dave Brailsford


38/124


INTERVIEW|Sir Dave Brailsford

clear focus and a sense of purpose

and y ouall g o into a w inter s

training w ithreal meaning .

Big losersTalk ing to B rails ford , its clear that

he does th in k anaw ful lotabouthis

team, the riders, the s taff,the

eq uipment every thing, infact,

that g oes to mak e up aw inning

team.H e has even manag edtos ee

setback s as essential steps on the

w ay to further succes se s .

Sometimes w hen y ouhavea lot

of success it w i ll impact ony ou.Its

hardto maintain itandw hen y ou

lose w ell,thatcan help.Thejourney

to g reatvictories has big ,big los ses

s omew herea long the w ay . I ves aid thatin thepast , w hen

w evebeen really hurting and

s t rug g ling , I ve said L ook lads , w e

need this ,becausei t w ill s purus onalong the w ay . B ut

y ou have to tak e s tock and as k , W here a re w e n ow ,

w hy d id th is happen, w hats g o in g on, how can w e

build on this?

As ide from this current interv iew , w hen y ou recall

every other chat thaty ouvehad w ith B railsford,its

hard to believe thatany other manager inhis position

has thought so long orhard about this s tuf f.

Given that most others in his positionw ithin W orld

Tour teams are former pro riders , their s k ills and focus

probably lie elsew here.L ack ing a pro career (but

having been a decent amateur rider),B railsford

arg uably compensates for thatlack of ex- pro

ex perience by out- think ing ,out- planning and

out- manoeuvring his peers behind the scenes.

T h e post F room e eraJustas therew as a Bradley Wigginsera

thatcame andw ent,so too,inevitably,

w illtherebeapost-Froome moment.Currently Froome is undisputed

leaderofthesquad,butthere w ill

inevitably comeamoment w hen Froome

fadesfromview .

Foramanagerlike Brailsford,the search

forthenextpotentialTourde France

w inner,is something that excites him,

even if its notcurrently occupying that

muchof his thoughts.

I actually think that there are lot

moreridersout therew hocould w inthe

Tourde Francethanpeople think,Ireally

do.Ithink therearealotof really,reallytalentedpeople outthere andmaybe

w itha differentapproachorenviron-

menttheycouldstepup.

There area lotof guys w hoarereally

close andallthey needis just thatlittle

step,theirlives take a turninacertain

directionandit happens forthem.

GivenBrailsfords longhistory w ith

Bradley Wiggins,bothas aGBtrackrider

and as the Team Sky superstar w ho

enjoyed that untouchable,unrepeatable

2012season,theres a clearand recent

example ofthatanalysis.Ina w ay,its easierto sayw hyarider

cant doit,but ittakes a longertimetosay

w ithconfidence thata ridercando it.

WhenyoulookatBradley,he w as like a

lotofyoungridersw hocan express their

talentincertainareas,butthey cant put

it alltogether the lifestyle,the training,

disciplineand allthe restof it they

needsome maturitytoput allthese

pieces together and off they go.

Third Tour champ?

Y ou spr int un ti l thed ay y o u reti re b eca u se

oth er w ise y ou ar e goin g togo back w ar dsBrailsford onstaying ahead

Thus , for Team Sk y under B rails ford, recruitment

isnt just about a riders riding talent,theteam w ill

consider sk ills,ex perience,and behaviour (w hat k ind

ofper son are they ? Are they a team play er ? ) w hen

look ing to fi ll a s lot on the sq uad. Its never just about

ABOVE:As track

supremowith

SirChrisHoyat

Beijing 2008


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theskilllevel,thetalentofa rider,notes Brailsford,Itsabout the wholepackage.

Youwould thinkthat with three Tourde Francewins inthepast four editions, Brailsford andSkywouldhave the wholethingdialled in and down. Notso, accordingto Brailsford.

One ofthemostdangerousthingsisthat youstarttobecome over-confident. One ofthe big risks ofwinning isthat you start tothinkOK, weve crackedthis and,he laughs, Ive been there. Weve all beenthere.

Its part ofgrowing upI guessbutyouquitequicklyrealise, mygod,theresnoendtothisthing!That isthepoint where you realise that there isnocrackingit,nobodycracks it.Itsreallyjust a continuouspuzzle.Themoment youthinkyouve cracked it you end uphaving a yearlike we didin2014.

So, like anybravemanagerofanysportsteam,

Brailsford tries toengage ina processof self-interro-gation, blue sky thinking and prodding, asking endless

questionsof theteamanditssystems.What Ive finallygot myheadaround isthat youve

got tokeepgoing, youve got torun,youve got tosprint, sprintashard asyou can.Because everyoneelse yourcompetition isrunning hard aswell, soyou sprintuntil thedayyouretire, because otherwiseyou are goingtogobackwards.

For Brailsford, there are noendpointsincycling,therearenomagic bullets andnocracking it andcertainlynorestingon yourlaurels.

I rememberthinkingtheotherday, there wasatimewhen Idwonder Wow, I wonder what itwouldbelike tobepartofa teamthat wonanOlympic goldmedaland thenyouthink, Oh,ifonly we could bepart ofsome kindofTourwinningteam.

And youdothat and then, theday afteryouveaccomplishedthat, youwake upandstartthinkingabout the nextthing, the nextrace.There isnoend

point. The endpoint iswhenyouretire.Brailsford hasno plans to retire any time soon.

BELOW: In the

2012 Tour

Froome (rig ht,

Nibali centre)

back ed W ig g ins

to a his toric fi rst

GB w in. Nex t

y ear,Froome

w as the leader

w ith W ig g ins on

the bench


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AN ALYSI S


The psychological pressure that Chris Froome has to copewith is immeasurable. Never mind the physiology, how do

you measure the mental strength required to win the Tour?

r itis h

WordsK enny P r y dePhotosG rah am W atson, Y u zu ru S unada


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Chris Froome is the mos t scrutinised, most

ex amined, most clos ely follow ed w inner

in the his tory of the Tour de France.

C learly , L ance Arms trong , s even- time

w inner of the race, also came under hug e

attention during his time, but that w as of a different

reg is ter. In that recent era it w as s till pos s ible to shut

dow n most irritating lines of inq uiry. And Tw itter

w asnt around either.

Ar ms trong w as able to ig nore or close dow n the

over- curious or abus ive, a tactic not open to Froom ein this era of g reater transparency . In fact, ironically ,

its thank s in part to Arm s trong that Froome (and

other Grand Tour w inners) have come under s uch

intense s tudy .

W e k now , of course, that Froome is phy sically

capable of w inning the Tour de France his tw o

w ins and third place fi n ish in 2012 are clear

evidence but w hat s ort of ps y cholog ical toug hness

is req uired to cope w ith the endless q uestioning that

ass ails Froome (and other recent w inners) from

every s ide?

To be cons tantly s ubject to online and even

roadside abus e on top of living a semi- monas tic

lifesty le req uired to w in the Tour de France mus t

inevitably tak e a toll on a rider, on a human being ,

on any one in the public ey e.

In the pos t- Arm s trong era, no rider has been able

to dominate the Tour de France the w ay the

Am erican did. Rider s tend to stumble or crack ,

over-reach thems elves , g et married and/or have

children. None of w hich appears to be conducive to

maintaining dom ination in July .L ook at the evidence. Since 2010, no rider has

manag ed to w in more than tw o Tours de France and

nobody has manag ed to w in tw o on the bounce

(thoug h some mig ht arg ue that Alberto C ontador

w as robbed in 2010).

Just a posh o

W ere tak ing a punt and s ay ing that C hris Froome is

the fi rs t public schoolboy ever to have w on the Tour

de France. If he has a connection to the land, it is

more lik ely to be as the s on of a landow ner than

Stage 12, 2015

Tour de France,

Froome turns

the screw on his

rivals (l to r):

Quintana,

Contador, van

Garderen,

Valverde


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would have coped better with that pressure. Wiggowas pure bloke, after all.

Yetwe hearno talesofFroome going onboozybenders, there are notabloid snapsofFroomesmokinga cheekyroll-uporofneedingShane Suttonto give hima proper talking to in order to get him backonthehorse again.

Froome, itseems, isshotthrough withmoresteelthanWigginswhen itcomes to the Tour de France anditsvaried demands.

Its not gone unnoticed, thisnice guy whowinstheworldshardest, moststressfulbike race. Hesbeenasked aboutit:youresopolite, but wheresthesteel?Iampoliteandrespectful,said Froome inthefinalpressconference ofthe 2015 Tour de France, but Idont take anyrubbish.

Givenwhat hehad toendureonthe roads ofthe2015 Tour, taking rubbish fromsocial media andmainstreamFrenchmediawouldseemto have beenthe least of his problems. Yet still, he remains above it.

W e dont have any k nobson this team

Sir David B rails ford on Team Sk y

The closestFroome has come togoing intoanykind

of meltdown waswhen LaurentJalabert, commentat-ingonFrenchTV,madesome crudeinsinuationsabout beinguneasy over Froomes riding. ComingfromJalabert, of all people, it would have taken a saintnot torespond.

Respect andprofessionalismarekeyFroomecharactertraits.Canyouimagine anyotherathleteinanyothersport,sittingina pressconferencebeingsubjectedtodoping questionsoverandover, day in,day out, not puttinga halt toproceedings?

Whenit comestobeing a Tourcontender yousimplycant dothat anymore and tocope withthattakes a mindset as special as the physiology.

AB O V E : It tak es

an ex c eptionalc y c l ist to h andle

th e pressure of

w ear ing t h e

y e llow jerse y


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INTERVIEW

44 |SUMMER 2016 |CYCLE SPORT MAGAZ INE


45/124


Adam Yates the Yates twin who wasnt world track champion is tipped be a future star. Chatting with him, its hard to imagine a

lessstarryriderthanthe Orica-GreenEdge climber

WordsKenny PrydePhotosGraham Watson, Yuzuru Sunada, Graeme Brown

I trav el th e w or ld

I go out tra in ingan y tim e I w an t

I stay in p alac es li k e th is

I n rea lity itsn o t b ad is it?


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INTERVIEW|Adam Yates

W

en our ph otograph er ask ed A dam

Y ates i f h e w as ready for some

pic tures, Y ates pulled at h is team

issue T - sh ir t to c h ec k for post- lunc h

food stains. H es a y oung b lok e in a

pro c y c ling team and h e w asnt ex pec ting a ph otogra-

ph er w i th h is b ags of paparaz z i k i t to turn up. Y ates

sw it h ers.

Y eah , u h , t h isl l b e u h no. I b e tter c h ange. I t w as

touch and go for a sec ond, b ut h is w ash ed- out

O r ic a- G reenEdge T - sh i rt w asn t b o x - f resh and look ed

lik e it h ad tak en a h i t from t h e lunc h b uf fet . H is mum

w ould not h av e b een impressed if h ed b een ph oto-

graph ed in it and h is team manager w ould h av e

prob ab ly just sigh ed.

Y ates disappeared into th e depth s of th e team h otel

and returned, spic and span, b righ t- ey ed, b ush y - tailed,

team- issued up, ready for h is c lose- ups from any

angle.R eady for h is c lose ups? E v er y t h ing th at Y ates does

th ese day s is ex amined in detail not least of w h i c h

th e state of h is T - sh irts and h is footw ear. T h eres a

d isc onnec t b e tw een Y ates, t h e 2 3 y ear -o ld r ider w h o

l iv es a b a c h e lor l ife w it h h is b rot h er S imon in G i rona

and A dam Y ates, one of B ritains b est b ik e riders, a

c l imb er w h o , on h is day , c an r ide w it h t h e spor ts b est

in th e h igh mountains. H es a c y c l ing star w h o doesnt

seem to c are muc h a b out t h e P R side or any t h ing, in

fac t, th at doesnt inv olv e h im riding faster.

W h en, many dec ades in th e future, h is epitaph is

w ritten, all it w ill need to say is A dam Y ates: H e just got

on w ith it. Its a ph rase th at c rops up sev eral times dur-

ing h is c onv ersation w it h Cycle Sport: Y ouv e just got

to get on w it h , h av ent y ou? w h ic h underpins h is

r id ing p h i losoph y . N o matter w h at y ou t h row at h im,

Y ates doesnt seem b oth ered b y muc h . H is b i k e . T h e

c ompetition. H is training load. H e just sh rugs, laugh s,

raises h is ey eb row s a little and utters th at ph rase or a

v ar iation on it . T h us, y ou also h ear th ings l ik e tr y my

b est, and get stuc k in, all spok en in a rapid- fire

L anc astrian ac c ent.

OutsiderF rom th e outside look ing in, from a distanc e, it all

seems to h av e h appened so easily for A dam Y ates. R ide

a b ik e, w in rac es, ride for G reat B ritain, get let go b y

th e B r itish C y c li ng A c ad emy , h ead to F r an ce w ith some

h elp from th e D av e R ay ner F und, rac e th ere , w in rac es,

sign a W orld T our pro contrac t w it h O r ic a- G reenEdge,

rac e w it h t h e b est in t h e C r iterium du D auph ine, w in ac lassic in y our sec ond pro season. A ll part of a simple,

w ell -ex ec uted plan.

Y ates demurs. W ell, th eres nev er really b een a

plan. I ev entually w ent to C C Etupes after spending tw o

y ears on a smaller F renc h team b ec ause it w as a strong

set up and w e did all th ese b ig races, so w h en I turned

pro th ere w asnt th at b ig of a gap, it didnt feel lik e th at

b ig of a step up. In a w ay, liv ing and rac ing in F ranc e

meant th at I w as already liv ing as a professional rider.

H ow ev er, i f t h ere h ad nev er b een a soph ist ic ated

c areer path , th ere h ad alw ay s b een desire, ev en if,

aged 15 , it w as a b it on th e v ague side. T h e c ataly st

LEFT:Yates won

the Tour of

Turkey in 2014,

earning respect

from fellow Brit

Mark Cavendish

(left)

RIGHT:Cornering on

stage 16 of the

2015 Tour, Yates

finished 50th

overall

Y ouve jus t g ot to g et on w ith it,havent y ou? Adam Yatess philosophy


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INTERVIEW |Adam Yates

to br in g h is options into sharpfocus w as ,as Y ates puts

it,his rejection by theB ritish C y cling Academy.

Rejectiony ou s ay ?

Y eah,alrig ht,m ay beturneddow nthen,

chuck les Y ates,perhaps unw itting ly revealing an

additionals ource of motivation.I w as 16 thenand

didnt really k now w hat to do, so I w as luck y that Josh

H unt( y ounger brother of former Team Sk y pro and

B ritish roadrace championJeremy H unt) and I g ot

talk ing and hehelped me fi nda team inFrance

(initially UV C A Troy es) otherw ise Im not sure w hat I

w ould havedone.

As in s o many areas of life, its often not s o much

w hat y ou k now , as w ho y o u k now . Y ates s eiz ed h is

chance,w ent to France and prog ress edrather than

crack ed,w inning races and readied hims elf for the

nex t s tepup

MountainsTheres a point in the life of every talented rider w hen

there is a decis ion to be made, the day daw n s w hen

y ou haveto commit to the idea of becoming a

profes s ional bi k e rider. Y oumove aw ay from home,

y oureess entially living alone,ina little tow n,in the

middle of now herein a foreig n country ,doing

w hatevery ou can to bea betterbik e rider.

Thats the level of commitment req uired and,

reg ardless of phy s iolog ical ability , its often that w hich

separates those w homak e theg rade from those other

y oung riders w ho,in popular parlance didnt w ant it

badly enoug h.

Given his results ,Y ates could have almost certainly

havefound himself a place in a UK- based Profess ional

C ontinentalteam but thatw as never partof even

Y atess vag ueplan.Y ates is a climber and the racing in

theU K,w ith its cit y - centreTV criteriums and dearth

of alpine- duration climbs,w as never g oing to suithis

particular talents , scrapping w ith all those big g uy s at

7 5k i los .

So,af ter tw o y ear s in Troy es , off to E tupes he w ent,

to theteam nest ling inthe V osg es mountains w hich

had already producedW arren B arg uil,Kenny

E lis s ondeand Thibaut Pinot to name but three of its

W orld Tourclimbers.

Y ates decidedthat hehad to put himself in the spot-

lig ht,in terrainand ag ainst opposition thats how edhis

w orth.Follow ing his second place overall inthe2013Tour de lAvenir, behind Ruben Fernandez (now w ith

M ovistar), Y ates s i g ned for O rica at just21.Y ates didnt

s ee itas a mas s ive jump and didnt feel it to be so

either.

The thing is that therace prog ramme I had at

E tupes w as g ood, there w ere a lotofhardraces . I dont

think people realise how toug h someof those French

D1races are,as w ell as thes tag e races .They areso

hard, s o hard to w in and g et results, but becaus e

RIGHT: Y a tes

w as c augh t up in

th e mass pile-up

on stage th ree

of last y ears

T our de F ranc e

BELOW: O n th e

w ay to a so lo

w in at S an

S e b astian 2 0 1 5


49/124


theyre inFrance, nobodyknows aboutthem.Anyway, I dontconsiderthat I turnedpro young, a

lot ofguysturnedpro thesame age asme, oryounger,I thinkwhatwasdifferentwasthat I got quite a fewopportunitiesto showmyselfearly, like in Turkey. LikeI said, the step up wasnt that extreme, becauseI hadalreadybeen racing hardat Etupesandina lot ofwaysalreadylivinglike a pro,soitwasnt a big change.

Yates threwhimselfintohisnewOricajobwithgusto,asthoughdetermined todemonstrate there wasmorethanthe BritishCyclingwayto goaboutbeing apro. Thus, hewasnot partofa tracksquad, nopartofa GreatBritainAcademy, hewenttoFrance anddid ittheoldway andcompoundedthat byturningprorelativelyyoung andthen divinginto a race pro-gramme that sawhimrace 83days inhis firstseason.

Allthingsconsidered, itcouldnt bemuchmoreoldschoolifit tried:theonlything thatsmissingarepre-paid phonecards, food parcels and magazinessentfromhome.

Intruth,Yateslovestorace ratherthan train an-othernodto theoldschool:Once theseasonisstarted,Id ratherjustrace.I dont like that, doa race,thentake sixweeks offandgotoaltitude stuffinsistsYates. If I start theyearatTirreno anddo Catalunyaand Pais Vasco,youcando allthree and thentheArdennes,then California, then Dauphine all in onebigblock.

Thats what I did in my first year then had a rest,

W hen I turned pro there wasnt that big of agap, it didnt feel like that big of a step up

Amateur career in France

wenttoaltitude, came downand didSan Sebastianwhere I crashed and thatwasit.Yatesistoo modest tomentionthat the resultshe got insome ofthose racesas a 21 year-old new pro were little short of stellar.

A lt itudeYates first everparticipationattheCriteriumduDauphine, thewarm-upfor theTourforsomanygeneral classificationcontenders, wasprobablyhisfinest week, even if there were no wins. When

AB O V E : Riding

the 2014 Worlds

w ithSkyDS Rod

Ellingw orth in

the GB team car


50/124



q uiz z ed,as much as herecog nises his performance,

hes still haz y on the details, as thoug h it w as already

ancient history .

I w as fi f th or s i x th? Abouta minute orsomethin g

f rom the w inner, w h ich w as alr ig ht. I had never been

to altitude before,w hen y oulook at theq ualit y of the

fi eld (Froome,N ibali,C ontador, V an Garderen,Porte),I

mean,even thoug h I didnt w in, I g ott w o thirdplaces I

think ,but for a fi rst y earneo pro,just s crapping about

and racin g for a few months , so lid , forme,that w as

probably my best performance. I sort of impress edmy s elf there.

And impres s ed the team? W ell, I hope so, laug hs

Y ates.

Y atess reference to altitude w as to the relatively

new vog uefor training camps based ataltitude and,

prior to that2014 Dauphine,he had never trained

w here the air is th in and thosedisper sed ox y g en

molecules really dont w ant to be suck ed into y our

lung s .

Stay ing upat altitudeandtraining uphig h too,it

mak es a big ,big difference, insists Y ates, I really

think it helps m e. Im not so s ure it mak es that much of

a differencefor sprinters or class ics- ty pe riders, but

for pureclimbers l ik e me it mak es a big dif ference to

w hat y ou c an do w hen y ou g o back dow n to s ea level.

So,forex ample,w e trained inL ivig no,in Italy ,at

around1,8 00 meters then I w entback dow n and raced

in San Sebas t ian andw as g oin g O K till I crashed. I

hadalw ay s w anted to try altitude training , but I could

never afford it.

From my ex per ience now I d say its one of the

big g est differences I can mak e to my training . Its

M otor b ik esLively and engagedas hew as,

theonetopic thatreally

provoked Yatesw as the(then)hottopic ofmotors in bikes.Was

heconcerned?Didhethinkit

w as a bigissue?

Honestly?Is it a problem?

Not evenalittle bit.Itis the

dumbestthing I have ever

heard,Icant begin toexplain

w hat a non-issue itis.

Obviously its goodthatthey

are checking and putting the

effortintomakingsureits not

happening,butatthis levelnow ,

w ell,cycling is alotdifferenttow hatit w as.Askyourself is it

w orththerisk?Is it?

And,speaking ofbikes,is

Yates the sortofriderw ho

obsesses overevery lastnut and

titanium bolt?

Guess w hat?No,as longas

its lightanditgoes fast.Again

youjustget on w ith it.That

phrase.

Storm in an E-cup

ABOVE:Yates

prefers thebuzz

ofracingto

training

RIGHT:Biggest

GCwin so far

was inthe 2014

Turkey Tour

O nc e the season isstar ted Id rath er

ju st r ac eYates on getting in shape


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s o w eird, w hen y ou g o up and g o out y ou jus t thin k

O of,Im absolutely creeping herethen comedow n

after training ands leeping hig h and suddenly its O h

y es , I feel g ood

In the end thoug h,Y ates is a natural- born racer.

Trainin g is a k ey part of the job, but the bes t bit, for

Y ates,is clearly w hen hepins a number on in a race

w heretheterrains uits his talents.

B asically I lik e racing .I mean,really, nobody

enjoys training dothey ? I f y ouenjoy training then

y ourenotdoing it properly , helaug hs.

M ore serious ly though ,headds , I d say that y oug et

morenervous w hen y oug o back into the bunch and

y ou dont race much,because there are thing s thaty ou

cant really train.Y ou cant train being s tres s ed and

s tuff lik e that.

Training

Y ates has , i nh is ow n phrase g oton w ith it in a w aythat sug g est s that thus- far his pro career has been a

trouble- free ride,s o to s peak .T here have been plenty

of g i ftedunder-23 riders w hohave crashed and

burned w hen they havesteppedup to W orld Tour

level. Not, it s eems, y oung Y ates. Ag ain, it all s eems s o

easy .

W ell, i tmig ht look lik e that, g iven that I w as

g etting results from my fi rst season, but w hat people

dont s ee is thehardw ork . C learly , i f y ouloveracing ,

then thats not so much li k e hardw ork .Training onthe

roads around Girona is w herethe w ork g ets done.

W hen itcomes to train ing , those s i x and seven

hourrides, w hen y ous ee them inthe training diary ,

y ouk now y ouve g otabig day . I dontmind the shorter,

more intense ses s ions,then y oujust g et stuck in, y ou

doitand sometimes it seems to g o q uick er, four efforts

onfour cl imbs and its overbeforey ouk now it.

B ut w hen y ou are dow n to do as ix - hourendur-

ance r ide, its lik e aw w w w here w e g o. So y ou s tar t

riding for a bit,look dow n to check the computer and

y ouveonly donehalf an hour

For a rider of such tender y ears and short W orld

Tour career, Y ates has already obs erved that mos t of

the peloton has cottonedon pretty q uick ly to training

trends and w ork methods.The focus ontraining

camps for ex ample andreduced numbers of race day s

for individual riders .Priorto the Dauphine, Y ates w as set to do a

three-w eek training campat altitude in Andorra.I

th in k the w hole W or ld Touri s doing the samething

now ,every one is g oing for themarg inalg ains thing ,

so y ouhave to do itandif y oudont doit, i f y ouarenot

look ing for those few percentag e g ains, then y ou are

g oing to g etleftbehind.

In the bad old day s people didnt have to do that

BELOW:Y a tes

c an ride a good

t ime tria l w h ic h

w ill h elp h is G C

prospec ts


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CYCL E SPORT MAG AZIN E |SUMME R 2016 |53

for obvious reasons but itsa bit differentnow,becausetheresnothing like that goingon,I hope.

Yates, asever, issanguine andgrounded. He maybe a world-class cyclist, but hes noprimadonna.Thoseotherathletesandsomeriders whocomplainaboutthephysicaland psychologicaldemands of thesportwontget toomuch sympathy from thisLancashirelad.

People dont see thetraining camp side ofthesport, but really, its justpart ofthe job.I mean, whenyouthinkabout it, in reality, we live an easy life, letsbe honest.

I travelthe world, I goout training anytime I want stayinpalaceslike thisone(laughs) inreality, itsnot bad is it?Even stuff like the early morning dope

controls,thoseimpositions thatPremierLeaguefootballersandtennis stars would scream until they

weresickover?Wellthatspartofthejob, theresnothing youcan

doabout it, youcant changeit, youjust get onwithitand get onwithyour job.Imeitherracing orat altitudecamp,most ofthe time, but whenI get homeI can dowhat I like,laughsYates, toa certainextent.

Determined enoughto dothingshisown waybutreadytobuckle downand dothework,secretlyexcitedbythe prospects ofhis future potential but aslevel-headeda rideras youllevermeet, Adam Yateshasalreadyhada decent career.

We reckonhell gofurtheryet, bythe simpleexpedient of just getting on with it.

ABOVE:

Girona-bas ed

L ancs man w onhis local clas s ic

at San Sebastian

las t y ear

I dont m in d th e sh or ter m orein tense session s

Yates dislike of long training rides

H igh l igh tsAdam Yates (Eng), 23Team: Orica GreenEdgePro since: 20142016: 3 rd s tag e three,Tour ofY ork shire,4 th overall; 4 th s tag e

s ix time trial,V uelta Pais V asco

2015 (Orica): 1 t C las s ica SanSebas tian;2nd overall Tour of

Alberta; 2nd Grand Prix

M ontreal

2014 (Orica): 1 t overall Tour ofTurk ey , 1 t s tag e s ix ; 1 t Gran

Premio Indus tria e Artig ianato;

6th overall C riterium du

Dauphine; 5th overall,Tour of

C alifornia2013 (CCEtupes): 2nd overallTour de lAvenir; 12th L ieg e-

B as togne- L ie ge E spoir s


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INTERVIEW


Words Kenny Pry de Photos Graeme B row n

MylifeasaproMECHANIC

Youlove bikes. Youlove pro racing. Why not combineboth and be amechanic? We asked Team Sky mechanic Ryan Bonser how he got his

seat of the back of the team car


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When you think about it, team mechanicsprobably get more attention than mostoftheriders whose bikes they prepare and

maintain. As superstarsslip from air-conditionedbuses to start line, dodging fans and as domestiquesmaketheir wayunhindered by most fans, itis themechanics, resplendentin team kit, who get asked themost questions. Questions like: Can I have a bottle?How much does the bike cost?and Can I h ave one?

The questions and attention at thestart area areone thing,but when themechanics set-up their basebehind theteam hotel, they are under almost constantobservation and questioning from those who gatherand gazeat top-spec machinery being cleaned andreadied by professional mechanics.

More than most,mechanics arein the frontlinewith thecurious public. Butthis attention is not thereason why Ryan Bonser is degreasing chains and

spinning Park Tools T-bars at Team Sky.There arehighs, ofcourse,working on a winning

team, but being badgered by the local bidon banditsisnotone ofthem. How, in the end, did Bonser end uphere, in a car park in Maastricht, tending beautiful-looking, immaculate Pinarellos?

Like so many others, Bonser day-dreamed of beingpart of a pro team, it wasnt in this context, though hegaveit a good go.The road thatled him to Sky wasfarfrom smooth and its safe to say that Bonser has paidhis dues.

ldham told emAs a 15 year-old bike-daftboywith ambitionsof a procareer, he worked in an Oldham bike shop, CycleCentre,as a Saturday boy, making tea and learningtofix increasingly complicated repairs and buildingwheels.

Therewasnt much in theway of training,a s such,laughsBonser, you justgotshown something andpicked thingsup as you went along. Weused to buildloads of wheels. When I started I was just lacing themup and Bob (Barlow) built them.

I was given five pairs of rims, fivesetsof hubs andloads of spokesand shown how to do it. I spenthoursand hours on them. At first Id beup and down becauseId forgotten how to do it then by theend of thefi rst

day, Id got it. I was racing on my own wheels.Bonser says thatall I wanted to do, when I was a

kid, was bea pro, there wasnt reallya Plan B.Tothatend, rather than go to college with his pals, aged 18 hepacked up his earthly goods in a beat-up Opel Corsaand droveto France, findinga berth in Cholet, in theLoire,backed with moneyhe had saved and someDave RaynerFund supporttoo. Looking back, itseems mad, but there was nothing else for it,reflectsBonser, shaking his head.

Bonser shared a house with a constantly rotatingbandof Russians, Ukrainiansand Moldovanswho hadpaid 20 Euros for a one-way bus trip, sat on a coach for

L E F T : Ryan

Bonser at the

office ona chilly

dayduring the

spring classics

four daysto find fortune and glory on Frances Atlanticcoast. I remember oncewe wokeup and theMoldovan s had just vanished. Theyd left their bikes.Justgone.

ig ex itIn his third year in France, Bonsers progresswashalted when hebrokehis back and, for a few terrifyingmonths in 2006,was a paraplegic.

I was chasing a couple ofriders off the Aubisque inthe fog, on my own,and misjudged a bend. I just wentstraight on. The next thing I knew I wasin hospital inPau and I couldnt feel anything from the chestdown.

I had a load oftitanium nutsand bolts put in myback thatnight and when I came round, I couldnt feelmuch anyway, becauseI was still outof it from thepain killers. Then they broughta phone into my roomand it was my mum on the other end. Stupidly, I told

her Im alr ightmeaning I was alive, basically.Theres a chuckle from Bonser now, butat thetime,

its hard to imagine how he felt. Yeah, at 20 years old,it was scary. Yeah. Scary.

After itwas clearI was going to at leastbe able towalk again they told me thatbeforethe operation theydid an MRI scan and when they studied thedamagethey reckoned I would only have a one-in-ten chanceof walking again.Medically, those are notgreatodds.Yeah, Im glad they didnt tell me that at the time!

Bonser spent three months in hospital and inphysiotherapy in Bagnres de Bigorre, and sings thepraisesof the French staffand help he had beforehereturned to England in autumn. Astonishingly, Bonserraced again with Recycling and the first incarnationof Rapha-Condor, in 2008.

I got two moreyears outof myself,smiles Bonser,I didnt touch my bike for two months after I gothome, but I wanted to know if I could doit again andIstarted riding, spoke to John Herety and rodefor him.

It was moreabout stopping when I wanted to stop,rather than being forced to. I still wanted to stay incycling though, because I had never done anythingelse. I had no other option, did I?

Spanner ladderBonser made a smooth transition into theteam carwith Herety at Rapha-Condor atthe end of 2008. Itwas a typical scenario. A freelance mechanic who iscalled in to help outat busy periods and biggerraces,whiletheday job is workingin a local bike shop.

I thin k thats pretty typical,says the 27 year-old.In the incestuous world of sport, word about

I w ould only h av e a one inten c h anc e of w alk ing again

Bonsers post-crash prognosis


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# # #$ $ $ $ %$ %#


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INTERVIEW|Ryan B onser

technicalcompetency g ets around.So it w as that

B onser w as contacted by B r itish C y clin g to help out the

Keith L ambert- led road sq uad ona few trips and after

th ree y ear s he w as pick ed up by Team Sk y .

Inevitably ,g iventhecross overand ming ling of

Team Sk y riders and Great B ritain national teams at

w orld championships,B onser had already been

s potted,head- hunted,as itw ere,before sig ning up for

theW orld Tourteam fullt ime in2013 .

W hen itcomes to fi nding a mechanics jobona

W orld Tour team any team y our chances of

w alk ing into the job from y our shed or local bik e shop

are slim to none.

In thehig h-press ure w orld of topfl ig htbik e racing ,

y ouneed to have servedy our time in thelow er

leag ues. Y ou need to have proved y ourself competentonthe spanners and ver y importantly have been

screenedand pass edas the sort of decent blok e w ho

therest ofthe staf f canlivew ith.

B onser w as as k edif hecould help outatthe 2013

Tour of C ataluny a and, unk now n to him , he w as on a

tr ial. H e pas sed,obvious l y . I th in k someofthe g uy s

thoug htI had come from the track and that I didnt

k now how aderailleur w ork ed

FamiliesO nce y ou are on the team and partof the travelling

circus , y ou s tart to s pot familiar faces in hotel car

park s w hereother teams mechanics haves etup.

For all thatteams arebeating each other into the

g round in races, themechanics onthe W orld Tour

spend a lotof time rubbing shoulders w itheach other,

mostly inhotel carpark s . Theremig htbesome

jock ey ing for pos ition closes t to the hotel, neares t the

w aters pig otandpow er points, but mechanics on rival

teams invariably come to each others res cue.

Y ou helpeach other out because y ou never k now

further dow n the road if y oull need a dig out y ourself,ex plains B onser.

B utits still bik e racing ,its still competition and y ou

are still try ing to beatthe other g uy

Documents

Cycle Sport - Summer 2016