Tour de France, 2011
The Tour is over for another year and the big smile on my face confirms it. The most painful and stressful race of the season is behind me!
I have a love/hate relationship with this race. For the months leading up to the Tour I focus and become100% committed. Once I arrive at the Tour my life is on hold, while away you get set into your routine of eating, racing, talking, eating and sleeping... You Live the Tour De France.
I feel sorry for my family, friends and my wife who must put up with me while I have my 3 week cycling holiday around France (booked by the lovely ASO travel company)
No reply to their text messages, un-answered calls and the stack of unread emails that sit there in my inbox. I’m also sure that during most phone calls I ask the same question at least twice.
The small things that may annoy you at home completely crack you on tour, where did I put my tooth paste? Why do need my suit case at 9am; can’t they take it at 9.15am... The point is, while you are on Tour you become another person. You must, otherwise you wont get though it.
The good thing about the Tour and riding for HTC is that we are sure of success at some point, I don’t want to sound smug but when you have the guys in the team we had, sooner or later you will get a win on the board. We won 5 stages with Cav and Tony picked up the ITT win.
I think we did the best we could and am proud to be apart of such an amazing team. There were times when we needed some luck or maybe a slight change in the crosswinds or tactics and we could have had a totally different result, but that is the beauty of the Tour; You never know what will happen! The stage where 3 overall contenders crashed and one French hopeful who then just about stole the glory from the big favourites happened on a day that looked like it should be a straight forward race, no one would have imagined such a big crash on this stage. Sure the stage was hard but did we know it would change the whole Tour?
The stage I enjoyed the most was when Cav won his 2nd stage. We had Lars Bak and Danny Pate ride all day chasing the break. We then had to use all our riders (the other 5) to make sure we would arrive for a bunch sprint. One by one each of my team mates pulled on the front to catch the break until I was left with Cav on my back wheel and 3kms to the finish. We ducked and weaved and passed the 1km sign...from train to train I moved up keeping out of the wind. It’s a bit of a waiting game looking for the right moment to jump with Cav in tow and a clear run to the line. It worked out perfect and it’s days like that that make the Tour so great!
It’s amazing the pain you go though but at the end of the Tour you only seem to remember the good parts and not so much the bad.
To have Cadel win the Tour was great, I feel lucky to be in the race where Australia's first winner rode and I got to witness the amazing way in which he did it! He showed class and great tactics in the way he rode.
It’s a great moment for cycling in Australia and hopefully it will inspire a lot of young kids who just like me sat on their couch dreaming of one day being able to race in the Tour de France.
A huge congratulations to Cadel and his BMC team!