Tag: 2015

Thomas De Gendt Recalibrating Focus with New Team Lotto Soudal, Aiming for Breakaway and Time Trial Victories over GC Results for Now

Thomas De Gendt is sporting a new kit this season, riding in the red of Lotto Soudal after signing a two-year agreement with the squad at the end of his one-year deal with Omega Pharma-Quick Step last season. Joining a new organization two years in a row (De Gendt started with OPQS after Vacansoleil folded following the 2013 season) is never easy, but De Gendt knew that Lotto Soudal might be a place where he could be able to get comfortable with a new environment quickly. Finding his comfort zone will likely help De Gendt in his mission to return to winning ways after two years with fewer big results than he would have liked, and signing with a team based in and mostly staffed with riders from Belgium, a team that shares his own style, was one way for De Gendt to ensure that he’d be riding in his element this coming season.

“For a Belgian guy, it’s important to have a team where you can feel at home,” De Gendt told VeloHuman by phone while taking a day off from early-season training. “So for me, it’s nice to be in a team where they speak my own language. It’s not a problem to be in a foreign team, but in a Belgian team it’s nice. It feels more like home. And the team tactics of Lotto Soudal suit me more than the tactics that we had at Quick Step. It’s more of an attacking style that they have, which fits me more than other tactics.”

An offseason with the team seems to have given De Gendt a chance to settle in and enjoy the atmosphere.

“A lot of the teammates I have now, we already rode together in other teams in the younger categories, so a lot of guys I knew already from before. So, because we are a young group and we all speak the same language, it’s nice to be together and it feels a little bit like when I went to school, joking around; we are still serious about our job but besides the job we are joking around and sending messages to each other, so we are not only colleagues, we are also friends, and that’s important in a team,” De Gendt said.

The positive environment should prove beneficial to De Gendt’s continued development, especially as he has begun to recalibrate his own expectations and personal goals for this season and beyond. A talented all-rounder throughout his early years as a pro, in 2012 (at age 25), De Gendt stormed to 3rd overall in the Giro d’Italia, staying within range of the podium through the first two weeks and then nabbing a breakaway stage victory and a Top 5 ITT performance in the final two days of the race to clinch the deal. Such a strong result in one of the sport’s biggest events set him up for a world of GC expectations in the seasons to come, but De Gendt has not been able to replicate that success in the past two years. While he has put in a few nice performances in breakaways and time trials in major races since then, the General Classification results have not materialized. Now 28, De Gendt is adjusting his focus as a rider, tailoring his objectives to the skills in which he feels most confident, and planning accordingly for the future.

“I’m not going to try to do the GCs anymore for the moment, but it all depends on how you feel in the races. If you start the Giro and you have really good legs in the first week, then it’s stupid to throw it away with a long breakaway, but I know it’s very difficult to even be in the Top 10 after two weeks. It’s not so that I am one of the biggest climbers in the peloton, so maybe it’s better for me to not focus on the GC, but more on the stage wins,” De Gendt explained. “If I have a really good legs in one of the Grand Tours, then maybe I can do the GC again but it’s not in my goals for the moment.”

Instead, De Gendt has his sights set on finding opportunities to put his formidable solo engine on display.

“Breakaways, stage wins—if it’s possible to win a mountain stage, I will do my best to try to do it—but breakaways and the time trials are for me the most important thing at this moment. I can’t say what it will be in half a year, so I will try to do my best in training, and then I will see in half a year or next year how I’ve developed again,” he said.

With stage victories now at the forefront of his list of objectives, De Gendt aimed to improve a variety of skills during the offseason with his new squad and new teammates.

“We focused on my climbing skills, for as far as we can do it in Belgium. We tried to do the trainings on the climbs—not the same as you can do on the high altitude, but still, we tried. And we also tried to be more explosive. But now we do a lot more hours than the year before, and I think that’s the main thing we focused on, to do more hours,” he said.

De Gendt’s first race in Lotto Soudal kit was January’s Tour Down Under, where he spent a long day in a breakaway and notched a respectable performance on Willunga Hill as well. He did not land any major results in Australia, but De Gendt was able to find positives coming back from the offseason: “I’ve had worse years than this year in the Tour Down Under. It’s not that I have the super form at this moment but for January it’s okay. I’d hoped it would be a little bit better, but then the stage to Willunga Hill, I was still 19th, so for me that’s a good result generally.”

De Gendt’s racing calendar for 2015 is still up-in-the-air, with further clarity likely to come as springtime racing gets underway.

“I think I’ll do Paris-Nice, but then after that it’s difficult to say because we don’t have a big program. They took out some races so I think they’ll wait until Paris-Nice so they can see from the other riders on the team who is the best, and then they’ll send the best riders to the WorldTour races and the other riders to the smaller races,” De Gendt said. “I hope I can do a Grand Tour. For me, I don’t have a favorite, so for me it’s the same, whichever one I can go to.”

With Lotto Soudal making startlist decisions based on how their riders are performing compared to expectations, De Gendt clarified that for him, the hope is that he can a return to a level of performance and a style of riding that he exhibited earlier in his career.

“I think they want me to be the same rider as I was in 2011, the more aggressive rider that attacked a lot and took the stage wins in this way. So that’s I think the way they see me riding again, and I hope to do like they expect me to do. Attacking and being aggressive in the races, I think that is the way to race again,” De Gendt said.

On a new squad and making changes to his approach as a rider, De Gendt is hesitant to set any concrete personal goals for 2015 this early in the season, but picking up a result or two to build his confidence appears to top his list.

“I will be very happy if I can win a race again. But if I have twenty 2nd places and no victories then I will also be happy after this year. So it’s still difficult to say but I hope I can get a victory, a big victory, and then it’s a good step on the way to being the rider again that I was before,” De Gendt said.

De Gendt’s chances of finding those results at Paris-Nice, where he is likely to ride next, seem as good as they’ll be at any event all season: he has won two stages there in the past, and this year’s edition will feature a pair of days racing against the clock and multiple stages with the sorts of bumpy profiles friendly to the breakaway specialists. Given his skillset and particular focus on just those types of challenges, Paris-Nice should present a prime opportunity for Thomas De Gendt to get on track for 2015 with his new team.

-Dane Cash

Photo by Photo News/Lotto Soudal.

February 16, 2015
Tour Down Under 2015 Post-race Impressions: Australian Youth Movement Takes Charge

2015’s first WorldTour race is in the books, with Rohan Dennis emerging as the surprise winner of the Tour Down Under just ahead of a very strong Richie Porte. With plenty of great performances across the six days of racing, especially from up-and-coming talents, the TDU offered a few big takeaways to start the season.

Rising Stars Lead the Way

As mentioned in VeloHuman’s various pre-race publications, the Tour Down Under is often a coming-out-party for young and developing talents. This was especially true in 2015. Rohan Dennis was already a well-known rider in the pro peloton in 2014, but his Stage 3 victory in the 2015 TDU marked his first WorldTour win, and his overall victory made this an all-the-more impressive trip home for the 24-year-old Australian. Making Dennis’s emergence even more exciting was the generational battle within his own team: Cadel Evans entered the race as the nominal leader, but with a powerful (and quite surprising) attack in the final kilometer of Stage 3, Dennis muscled his way into the driver’s seat within the BMC ranks, and then held on to the overall lead. With a Tour of California mountain stage victory last year and now this win built on both climbing prowess and and explosive kick, Rohan Dennis has shown serious progression as a more complete rider recently.

But Dennis was not alone among the younger riders in the race: Steele Von Hoff, Juan Jose Lobato, and Wouter Wippert all beat out big names in the sprints to pick up their first WorldTour-level wins, and Jack Bobridge picked up his second (along the way to the King of the Mountains jersey to boot) by escaping those fast men in the opening stage. There were plenty of familiar faces near the head of affairs in the 2015 Tour Down Under, but the young guns showed up in force and put on the show. Niccolo Bonifazio, Ruben Fernandez, and George Bennett were other members of the up-and-coming crowd to make emphatic statements in this race, while 24-year-old Tom Dumoulin, 4th overall, continued what has been an impressive growth pattern over the past few years, climbing (and sprinting for bonus seconds) at a very high level all week. 3rd in the Worlds ITT last year, Dumoulin is clearly a lot more than just a time trial specialist, and the future is very bright for the Dutch all-rounder.

Bonus Seconds Decisive Again

For yet another year, bonus seconds decided the race, for better or worse, depending on your opinion of bonus seconds. For yet another year, the winner on Willunga Hill did not achieve enough of a gap to overcome the time bonuses picked up by a GC rival in prior stages; in fact, that makes two straight years for Richie Porte. Porte came into this race on excellent form and proved it in the final stage, but it was not enough to offset his deficit in the bonus seconds game. For having been in this exact position before, Sky’s tactics were questionable throughout the race: they did a whole lot of work on the front of the pack in the earlier stages, which only made it easier for rivals like Dennis, Evans, and Daryl Impey to get bonus seconds, and then in the queen stage at Willunga Hill, Porte waited until roughly the final kilometer to launch his devastating attack. He blew everyone off his wheel with sheer strength and won the day, but it was clear when Dennis rolled across the line nine seconds later that Porte had left it too late. Expecting to take enough seconds to close the entirety of his gap in the final kilometer of a not-all-that-steep climb proved tactically costly, and Porte paid for it; Dennis even thanked him for going so late in his post-race interview. In short, time bonuses don’t simply add an extra layer of excitement to this race; they have been critical to victory here time and time again, and Dennis showed once more in 2015 that potential race-winners would be wise to build their TDU gameplans with the battle for bonus seconds in mind.

Australians Dominate the Race

For the fourth time in five years, the Tour Down Under was won by an Australian rider. For the first time in several years, the podium was swept by Australians. Four of the six stage winners were also Australian, and a fifth rides for an Australian Pro Continental Team. On the one hand, and at first glance, perhaps the proper response is simply to be impressed at the consistent performances of home riders in this race. Plenty of international riders made the start, but Australian veterans and up-and-comers alike rode brilliantly on a variety of terrains to showcase their talents, suggesting that the state of affairs for Australian cycling looks brilliant right now, and that is without Simon Gerrans or Michael Matthews, among the biggest stars Oz has to offer, even on the startlist.

However, another conclusion to be drawn from all this Australian dominance is that it may just be time to find a way to bring the Tour Down Under a bit closer to the big races of the rest of the season. Domenico Pozzovivo was on the startlist and he rode well (finishing 6th), but if this race were just a bit closer to his main targets of 2015, one has to imagine he might have been in better form to challenge for the climber’s stage at Willunga Hill. Marcel Kittel, Giacomo Nizzolo, and Gianni Meersman were among the best-known fast men in attendance, and none of them cracked a Top 5 in a stage. And beyond these few non-Australian stars and the handful of authors active in this race, the big-name talents from the rest of the world were a bit scarce, with many top riders electing to start their seasons elsewhere. The event itself was a roller coaster ride all week long, but with a few scheduling changes, things might be made even better, with a few more global stars likely to not only make the journey, but to make it in form and ready to challenge for results.

-Dane Cash

Photo by Charles Wong.

January 26, 2015
The Recon Ride Podcast: Tour Down Under 2015 Pre-race Show

Episode 1: Tour Down Under 2015 Pre-race Show
The Recon Ride delves into the route and the startlist for the first WorldTour race of the year.
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VeloHuman is teaming up with Cosmo Catalano, the man behind How the Race Was Won and The Week in Bike, to present The Recon Ride, a pre-race podcast show. Our inaugural episode previews the 2015 Tour Down Under, delving into the route and the startlist, with a bit of Heinrich Haussler interview audio from a piece VH did for CyclingTips that you should absolutely check out, and even a few predictions at the end. Give it a listen!

January 18, 2015
Tour Down Under 2015 Preview

The wait is over! The long WorldTour offseason is finally coming to an end as things get kicked off this week in Australia with the 17th edition of the Tour Down Under. A six-day stage race in and around Adelaide, the race has grown bigger and bigger in the past few years, and the parcours has developed as well: heavyweight sprinters have won the overall here in the past, but these days, a hillier route favors the more capable climbers in the peloton. Those hills tend to make for an exciting return to WorldTour racing, and also welcome return to race preview season here at VeloHuman.

Note: a shorter version of this preview can be seen at VeloNews.

The Route

There are no Alpine inclines to overcome in the Tour Down Under, but the hills that feature in a few of the race’s six stages are more than enough of a challenge to keep things interesting. The first WorldTour race of the year opens with a short (132.6 km) and mostly flat trip from Tanunda to Campbelltown, ending with a long straightaway that should give the sprinters an opportunity to pick up a victory. Stage 2 concludes with an uphill finish that has featured in previous editions of the Tour Down Under, probably not steep enough to make any serious separation likely, but potentially a place for the punchier GC contenders to make a bid for precious bonus seconds. Stage 3 features a new climb near the finish line in Paracombe, a short but steep affair that will almost certainly see gaps appearing in the bunch. The uphill specialists with GC aspirations cannot hesitate to launch for glory on Stage 3, as it is one of the few opportunities they will have to get clear of the peloton in the Tour Down Under.

Stage 4 will take the peloton on an undulating journey from Glenelg to Mt. Barker, where a flat finish will likely deter anyone from engaging in GC action. Stage 5, on the other hand, is the traditional queen stage of the Tour Down Under, 151.5 kilometers from McLaren Vale to classic TDU climb Willunga Hill, which will be climbed twice. 3 km at an average gradient over 7%, Old Willunga will inevitably see a showdown among the top climbers of the race. Richie Porte won here in 2014 with a 10 second gap, though as has often been the case in the TDU, his margin was not enough to overcome the GC bid of Simon Gerrans, whose propensity to collect bonus seconds put him in the driver’s seat in last year’s race. In other words, it is crucial to finish well on Willunga Hill, but consistent performance on the other five stages of the race is also crucial.

Stage 6 closes out the 2015 Tour Down Under with a 90 kilometer circuit race in the heart of Adelaide, essentially a very long criterium that almost invariably favors the pure sprinters.

Looking at the big picture, Stages 2, 3, and 5 are those likeliest to see the GC contenders trying to position themselves for a showdown. Regardless of whether serious gaps open up there or on any of the TDU’s six stages, however, it is important to be near the front at every finish line, as the dearth of long mountain climbs makes the battle for bonus seconds critical to the General Classification fight.

The GC Contenders

Sifting through the startlist to pick out the major favorites for the overall in the TDU can be difficult because the position of the race on the cycling calendar (in January) makes form and motivation a major unknown for a number of the riders in attendance, especially for those non-Australians who are not coming off of Nationals week like the home riders are. The absence of last year’s winner Simon Gerrans (who is out with a broken collarbone) will only add to that unpredictability. Still, plenty of big names, Australian and otherwise, stand out as likely GC contenders.

Having taken an impressive victory over several talented chrono stars in the Australian ITT National Championship, Richie Porte has proven to be in blazing form this January. There is no time trial in the TDU, and Porte isn’t known for his finishing kick, which will make it difficult for him to play the bonus seconds game, but with his ability to climb at an elite level, that might not matter. Given his display of fitness at Nationals, he looks ready to put it on the line here and it will be hard for his rivals to keep him in check when the road goes up. Geraint Thomas was 8th here last year even while riding in a support role for Porte, and he was 3rd in 2013. His powerful engine and not-insignificant sprinting ability will come in handy here, making him an excellent potential alternative for Sky.

Cadel Evans leads a BMC team that will hope to take on the Sky roster. This will be Evans’s last WorldTour event before he retires in a few weeks, and he’s never won this race, so he should be motivated to give it his all (especially after missing out on the victory here last year by one second). Even at age 37, he’s still got a nice finishing kick to pick up all-important time bonuses, and will be dangerous on several stages. In up-and-coming Australian talent Rohan Dennis, BMC has a strong second card to play. Dennis is known as a time-trialist but he climbed with the very best in last year’s Tour of California, and he is continuing to get better and better as an all-round talent.

Despite the absence of Simon Gerrans, Orica-GreenEdge will take on their home race with several potential GC men, with Daryl Impey looking like the best option. Impey is deadly in a reduced sprint, and if he can gain an early advantage of bonus seconds, he might have what it takes to hold on over the harder climbs. Simon Clarke’s penchant for aggressive riding could come in handy, especially in a race where one strong stage performance can be enough for an overall victory. Past winner Cameron Meyer will be more of an outsider this year, but a rider worth watching at the very least.

Cannondale-Garmin is another team with options. Ryder Hesjedal, Moreno Moser, and Alex Howes are all well-rounded talents with the potential to mix it up on a variety of stages, but Nathan Haas could be the best man on the squad for this Tour Down Under. He is another rider who will hope to win the bonus seconds game, and he showed off his strong finishing kick in last year’s race on his way to 5th overall. He has a propensity to perform very well outside of Europe, with two Japan Cup victories and results in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour and Tour de Langkawi as well.

Giant-Alpecin’s dual threat of Tom Dumoulin and Simon Geschke will be dangerous if both riders are in good enough form to mix it up with the favorites in this race. Dumoulin has an underrated sprint to match his elite soloing ability, while Geschke’s fast finish is a known commodity that will make him a contender for time bonuses on the 2nd and 4th stages. Katusha has Tiago Machado, an excellent climber, and Giampaolo Caruso, who is more explosive than many realize. That makes them another team with a dual threat worth keeping an eye on. AG2R brings a stable of climbers as well, with Domenico Pozzovivo the most prominent name but with Christophe Riblon and Blel Kadri, typically very strong on hillier days like the ones that could decide this race, making the start as well.

Tinkoff-Saxo’s Michael Rogers will look to get clear of the peloton at any opportunity. The same is true for Lotto Soudal’s Adam Hansen; the Belgian squad also Thomas De Gendt as a potential contender. Astana’s Luis Leon Sanchez won here way back in 2005, and having returned to the WorldTour level with Astana after a year with Caja Rural, he will hope to kick the year off in style; his combination of strong soloing ability, decent climbing ability, and a nice sprint make him a dangerous outsider here. Movistar’s Jose Herrada and Gorka Izagirre and LottoNL’s George Bennett are other outsiders with a chance.

The Stagehunters

On the list of fast men who are making the start with clear stage-winning goals in mind, sprinting superstar Marcel Kittel tops the list, but his objectives and his readiness to take on a WorldTour-level race are a big question mark. He won the 2014 People’s Choice Classic but was afterward a non-factor in this race. Obviously, if he is in good shape, he will be the man to beat here in 2015, but that’s a big if. Form is also an unknown for talented Italians Giacomo Nizzolo and Roberto Ferrari, but there are stages to suit both if they are here to race. Nizzolo has great top-end speed and the opening stage to Campbelltown could suit him. Typically Mark Renshaw might have trouble hanging with the aforementioned big names, but on his home turf, anything is possible. Etixx – Quick-Step will hope to start the year off with a stage win from either Renshaw or the versatile Gianni Meersman, who could feature in Stages 2 or 4.

Heinrich Haussler is another rider with the potential to shine on those somewhat bumpier days. He was on excellent form in the Australian National Championship Road Race, getting into the day’s early breakaway at first, and then, after that was reeled in, jumping right back into another move off the front, the move that won the race. With that form, he should be able to do pick up some results in the Tour Down Under.

Steele Von Hoff, Barry Markus, Gregory Henderson, and JJ Lobato are other fast men to keep an eye on here.

VeloHuman Top 10 Race Favorites

General Classification Winner: Richie Porte
GC Podium: Cadel Evans, Daryl Impey
Other Top GC Contenders: Nathan Haas, Tom Dumoulin, Geraint Thomas, Michael Rogers, Luis Leon Sanchez, Domenico Pozzovivo, Tiago Machado

VeloHuman was so excited about the return of racing season that in addition to writing this preview, VH teamed up with Cosmo Catalano to present The Recon Ride Podcast, a pre-race show. Give it a listen! And as usual, VH will be tweeting plenty of live analysis during the race, so follow @VeloHuman on Twitter for more!

-Dane Cash

Photo by Kym Della-Torre.

January 17, 2015
Heinrich Haussler: “I’m Ready to Race.”

The past several seasons have not been easy for two-time Monument runner-up and Tour de France stage-winner Heinrich Haussler. After a marquee 2009 campaign in which he racked up those big results and a few others, crashes and injuries slowed him down for a number of the seasons that followed. Haussler recovered from a broken hip and pelvis in 2013 to race a full 2014 schedule, ultimately taking a stage win in Bayern Rundfahrt and a few top tens (including a 2nd place in the Tour de France) on the year, though the results were still not where they used to be.

But 2015 is a new year for Haussler, and, importantly, he will take on this season with last year’s mileage and an offseason of good training as a solid starting point, rather than having to start from scratch after having his season derailed by injury or surgery.

Writing for CyclingTips, VeloHuman caught up with Haussler ahead of Sunday’s National Championships Race. You can check out the conversation there or here:

VH: This will be your first Australian National Champs race and your first Tour Down Under since 2012. What motivated you this year to be in Australia for January?

HH: I wanted to try something different and also get a lot of good training in my legs. We already came out to Australia in the middle of December just to get used to the heat, and you can train just better here than you can in Europe. Last week for example, the whole of Europe was just covered in snow, it was just freezing, negative temperatures, and no one could train. So that was really the main idea, and second, we were waiting on whether we were going to go Pro Tour or not. So if we were – and we did get the Pro Tour spot – we’d have to do Down Under, and I wanted to do Nationals, Down Under, and Cadel Evans’s race.

VH: What is it like training here [Haussler and his IAM team have been in the alpine town of Bright over Christmas holidays]? What do you think it’s going to be like racing in front of Australian crowds?

HH: The way I’ve seen it the last few years, it’s just getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and all of a sudden I notice it when I’m out training, there’s just so many cyclists here, it’s amazing. It’s grown so much in the last decade or so. It’s good for cycling. I’m really looking forward to racing Down Under. I’ve always followed the last few years on TV, and I saw that my form was good so I wanted to try to do something on one or two stages.

VH: You made it through 2014 relatively unscathed after a tough 2013, and of course before that you’d had some misfortune with crashes and injuries here and there for a few seasons running. Do you feel that a full season on the road and then a full offseason to follow has given you an opportunity to get to your very best for 2015?

HH: Yeah. I’m not saying now that I’m at my “best” but I was just talking to a few mates about that the other day. This is the first year since 2009 where I’ve gone through a full season of good racing in my legs without having any bad crashes or an operation or breaking a bone or something. It makes a massive difference, getting back on the bike in the winter, getting ready, it just puts you on another level. And also, having a Grand Tour in your legs. So I’m really excited and I’m ready to go for this year and just see where it takes me.

VH: Do you feel like your offseason training went according to plan?

HH: Yeah, I mean, the stuff that I’m doing now in training, it’s making me a little bit excited. And I’m ready to race.

CT: The National Champs circuit looks pretty open this year. It’s never easy taking on a team with greater numbers like GreenEdge in that race, and you’ve said that you’re not necessarily at your very best peak form at this part of the season, but are you expecting to contend for the National Championship race?

VH: Now that Gerro is out with a broken collarbone it’s just opened it up completely. The way Richie [Porte] rode the time trial yesterday, he’s just super strong, so it’s going to be an interesting race. Either twenty guys go up the road in the first two laps and the right guys are in it and then it’s already game over, or maybe teams like Sky or BMC, they really want to try to keep it together for those last two laps for Richie and Cadel. But without Gerro there, they [Orica-GreenEdge] have the numbers but they’re not really a team that I’m worrying about

CT: Do you have a strategy in mind for the race?

VH: There’s no big strategy about it. Either me or [David] Tanner in the group in the beginning, and if it’s a good group – obviously we know who needs to be in the group, if there’s three or four GreenEdge guys, two BMC, and a Sky, and a few of the national teams – then the group is going to the go to the finish. But if it’s only six or seven guys that get up the road, then obviously you can control the race. You know, we’ll see, if twenty guys go up the road, we have to be there. If not, sit tight, wait, wait, save energy and see what we can do in the last two or three laps. The course is that hard that I think there’s nothing else you can do. If one guy goes with six or seven laps to go, you’re just going to burn yourself.

CT: After Nationals it’s on to the Tour Down Under. With the January start, some riders come into the Tour Down Under with lowered expectations, with big goals that might be a bit later in the season. Would you say that’s the case for you, or are you thinking you might be able to pick up a win or two in the race?

VH: Yeah, that’d be nice if it would happen! But a lot of people underestimate the Tour Down Under. They think, you know, come out to Australia, first race of the year, the stages are only 140 km. But when I came in 2012, it was just as hard as the Pro Tour races in Europe. . . . It’s still absolute full gas. . . . There’s points up for grabs, they want to show the sponsors, the teams on TV, there’s no mucking around anymore. Everyone comes here 100%. But I’ll be ready to try and do something.

CT: Have you had a chance to look at the roadbook and pinpoint the days that fit your skillset?

VH: Well there’s four stages where I could have a go. The other two, with Willunga and the new hilltop finish, they’re not for me. But we’re coming out with a really good team, a strong team. We’ve got a new climbing guy, [Jarlinson] Pantano. We’ll see how he goes, we’ll try to keep him up there on GC. But like I said, it’s hard racing. Even the second stage, in Stirling, what I saw last year, there were a lot of good hill climbers in the final and not so many sprinters left, but I think that could be a stage where I could have a go, I’ll just have to see what happens in the race.

CT: So Jarlinson Pantano is the GC leader for the team?

VH: I’d say so. The rest of the guys aren’t really top climbers. Though, even David Tanner, he also came out to Australia, we’ve been training together, you never know what he can do.

CT: Do you feel that your offseason has gotten you to the level you need to be for the Classics?

VH: To be honest I don’t think I’ve ever been this strong before.

CT: For the spring is it all-in for the Classics?

VH: Definitely. I told the team that I don’t want to do the Tour this year. It’s 100% for the Classics.

CT: So no Tour de France?

VH: It’s just too much stress. I’d rather do the one-day races, and afterwards have a little bit of rest for the summer and build towards the next one-day races, Eneco Tour and Hamburg, Plouay, maybe the races in Canada and then build up again for the World Championships. If you do three times building up, it’s really hard to calculate and you’ve got to get things 100% so I’d rather do one big block, have a rest, do another big block of altitude maybe, and then get ready for the second part of the season. The thing is, if you come out of the Tour already cooked and really fatigued, you might still go to races but the season is already over.

CT: This will be IAM’s first year at the WorldTour level. You are one of the veterans on the squad who have already ridden at a Pro Tour level in the past. How well do you think IAM will be able to contend with that full WorldTour schedule on the horizon, this year and beyond?

VH: For the future, I hope Michel [Thétaz, team founder and General Manger] hangs around. I’ve never met a guy like him before, it’s amazing, there should be more guys like him in the sport. I have absolutely no worries about the team for this year. We’ve got a lot of good new riders, riders that are very solid, that can work hard, that can do their job. But also, especially for me, new guys for the Classics, like Jonas Van Genechten and Dries Devenyns. We already knew these guys before, I’ve seen them and how well they ride, and I’m absolutely really happy with the team. I think a lot of the people at the end of the season will wonder: where did IAM come from? Why were they so good this year?

CT: By season’s end, what will it take for you to consider 2015 to have been a success?

VH: In 2012 I had good racing again in the legs, and then in 2013 I was kind of back, I had top 10s again, in the Classics I could attack, I could actually do stuff and just have that feeling again, to be able to go on the cobbles, to have that sensation where you could stand up and attack. I want to get back to that. I want to have fun racing again. Sometimes it’s really frustrating, because you haven’t had the legs and you see the guys go up the road and you just think, “Fuck, what am I doing here? I can do this!” But I just didn’t have the form. But it’ll come. Just normal stuff, at the training camp, sitting around with your teammates, eating, laughing, joking, the spirit is just different this year. And that will reflect also on our results. It’s a bit of a family feeling. You have to have that, you have to be happy in your own environment. You know what I mean? If you are on a team and you’re not happy, sitting in a bus, guys next you and you don’t talk to them, obviously you’re not going to ride well because you don’t want to be there. I just want to get back to that level where I was, for example, in 2009 or 2013.

CT: Is there one particular race where you feel like you have unfinished business?

VH: All the Classics. They’re all open for me. I love these races. I especially love Sanremo. Obviously it’s going to be very, very difficult to win or get a good result there, but it’s still my number one goal to be good in the Classics and get the highest result possible.

CT: With San Remo being around the corner now, how do you feel about the 2015 San Remo route?

VH: I think it’s perfect. That is San Remo. That’s the way it should be. They shouldn’t always be trying to make these races harder and changing the tradition of the Classics. I know some organizers just want to change races and make them even harder and harder and harder. That’s the way it’s been for the last couple of years. But I think, yeah, not just me, but a lot of the other guys out there, they’re happy with the way the route it’s, that’s the way it should stay.

-Dane Cash for CyclingTips

Photo by Katie Chan.

January 9, 2015
Giant-Shimano’s Lawson Craddock “Learned a Ton” from a Season of Ups and Downs, Targeting More Stage Race Success in 2015

After a long season riding at the WorldTour level for the first time in his career, American up-and-coming stage racing star Lawson Craddock is finally enjoying an extended period of time at home in Texas. The all-rounder made a strong debut in the top division this year with Giant-Shimano, highlighted by a 3rd overall (and a second straight Young Riders Classification win) in the Tour of California in May. Craddock also rode in his first WorldTour-level race in June at the Tour de Suisse and then took on his first Grand Tour at the Vuelta in August. Having spent a few weeks at home after the conclusion of his race calendar, he will soon head to Australia to make his first career start in January’s Tour Down Under. VeloHuman caught up with Craddock by phone to hear his thoughts on 2014 and what lies ahead.

Craddock’s goal for this season, his inaugural WorldTour year, was first and foremost to learn, and now looking back on his first twelve months at the top division, he seems satisfied with his WorldTour education so far: “I learned a ton this season. And it’s more than just what you learn on the bike. You learn a lot about yourself off the bike, about what you can handle and what you can’t handle,” he said. “Overall, it’s been a good year, I’ve had some ups and had some downs, and it was a great learning experience. It sucks being away from family and my girlfriend for so long but it was a great experience. I really enjoyed the year with Giant-Shimano.”

One “up” among those ups and downs stands out well above the rest: Craddock’s excellent performance in the Tour of California. For Craddock, a spot on the podium and a successful defense of the Best Young Rider title were the welcome return on a serious investment of training. “I came into [the Tour of California] and I’d worked really hard. I went up to Ruidoso with Jasper Stuyven, a former teammate of mine, and really worked hard for three weeks straight and it showed. I was really happy with that and I think it gives me a lot to build on for the future,” he said.

His success largely came on the back of a strong climbing performance on Mount Diablo in the race’s third stage. Known for his time trialing prowess early in his career, Craddock made it a major focus to improve as a climber, and has worked hard to transform himself into a more complete rider, capable of getting into the mix when the road goes up: in 2013, he took 7th in the USA Pro Challenge and 8th in the Tour of California, and in 2014 he made the step onto the podium in California. A strong, vocal support group has helped him to continually improve. “I’m just riding a lot more. You look back on my junior days and time trialing is my specialty but you look at where the most success comes from on the road and that’s the stage races. I kind of took a step back, I toned down a bit of the intensity and added a whole lot more hours and tried to drop a few pounds,” Craddock explained. “If you’re good at time trialing, chances are you’re good at climbing as well. You know, it took me a while to figure out how to do it the best way, but I had a really good support group behind me: Axel Merckx calling me a fatty pretty much every weekend, guys like Jim Miller really helping me take that next step in my career and change me from a time trialist into more of an all-round GC rider.”

With the increased versatility, Craddock is hoping to reach a point where he can contend in the big stage races and ultimately the Grand Tours, though he is patient when it comes to expectations about his own development. “I take it step by step at a time; first you’ve got to finish a Grand Tour. I started the Vuelta this year and it didn’t go quite as well as I wanted it to. But you know, you’ve got to take certain steps in your career to progress. We’ll see. Maybe focus on the races like California, the Tour de Suisse and whatnot, and get successful at those before turning attention to something like a Grand Tour,” he said.

Craddock’s run at the Vuelta, his first career Grand Tour start, ended earlier than he’d hoped, when he pulled out of the race during the 14th stage after a tiring two weeks spent largely on the front, putting in work for team leaders Warren Barguil and John Degenkolb. Craddock knew it was going to be a huge challenge entering the grueling Grand Tour, but that did not make it much easier. “Normally you ride the front for two or three days and then that’s about it. But when you’re doing a Grand Tour you’re on the front for thirteen days into a race and it’s just a whole new ballgame out there. But it was a great experience. And it definitely, although it did not end the year on a bright note, it gave me a lot of motivation to come back next year and improve myself, do what I know I’m capable of doing,” he said.

Registering a DNF on Stage 14 after battling fatigue for so many long hours of constant work in the peloton was indeed one of the most difficult moments in his career, though the memory seems like it will only help drive him to continue to develop as a rider. “The sport is as tough, or I’d say even tougher mentally than it is physically. You put so much into a goal, and coming into this year my biggest goal was always to be at the Vuelta and finish the damn thing but you know, when you train as hard as you can and really stay focused and then see that things aren’t going as planned, and you’re getting dropped an hour and a half into a stage and you’re just not sure what’s going on, it’s definitely a tough pill to swallow. Especially climbing into the car was a really difficult thing for me to do, since that’s just not my mindset, I’m not a quitter,” Craddock said. “Hands down it was one of the hardest things I had to go through this year. But like I said, it just gives me all that much more motivation to come back next year.”

With WorldTour and Grand Tour starts and a podium in a major pro stage race now under his belt, Craddock feels confident for 2015 and has noticed a difference in his form. “You do some WorldTour races like the Suisse and two weeks of the Vuelta and it definitely does change your body. What used to be an annoying pace to ride at, the high endurance, it’s now a comfortable pace for you to ride at. And I think, when you’re starting out with that as your base, you can definitely tell that there’s huge difference, you definitely see that you’ve taken a big step up,” he noted.

Being surrounded by fellow young American talents should be a boon for Craddock as he continues to build that base: Giant-Shimano (Giant-Alpecin in 2015) signed Caleb Fairly and Carter Jones this offseason, bringing the team’s total of American riders aged 27 or younger to four. When asked what has drawn so many young American riders to the squad, Craddock first emphasized a very important detail about a few of his teammates: “First of all, I think Texan talent more than just American talent, because me, Chad [Haga], and Caleb are all Texans. So I think that’s something to be excited about, all three Texans on the WorldTour on the same team!” He then explained that his squad’s focus on and track record with rider development is very appealing. “I think you look at the team, you look at guys like Warren [Barguil] and Tom [Dumoulin], they came in as really strong Under-23 riders and the team has helped progress them into really strong GC riders and so you see that and I think that’s why it has such a high appeal towards the younger guys. You look at the team and you see the success that they’ve had with progressing riders. They’re not just putting riders off the deep-end and giving them too much to handle, they’re doing what they think is best and they’re thinking three, five, ten years down the road for us,” he said.

Craddock has been in Texas enjoying time with family and friends and the easy access to Chinese and Mexican food while also putting in work with training partners Chad Haga, Carter Jones, Caleb Fairly, Nate Brown, and Gavin Mannion (Craddock noted that they call themselves the “Camp of Champs”), but the 22-year-old will head to Australia soon. Giant-Alpecin is bringing several of its biggest talents, but they know it will be a challenge battling the Australian riders at home. Craddock’s focus will be on putting in the work to position Marcel Kittel for the sprints and team GC leaders Tom Dumoulin and Simon Geschke for the overall. “You know, it’s Down Under, it’s going to be tough to beat the Australians, they’re always ripping on their home turf and especially in January, so it’s definitely going to be hard to beat them, but I think we’re coming with a really strong squad and obviously we’ve got Kittel for the sprints and we’ve got Tom and Geschke for the GC. We’re going to do everything that we can to put them in the best possible situation to get a result. I think it will be a lot of fun. The way things have been going I think we’ll have a lot of success . . . It’s definitely giving me a lot of motivation to train hard this last month and go out on those rainy days. But I’m excited to go. I’ve never been to Australia before. As long as I can go and do everything to help those guys out then I’ll walk away a happy man,” Craddock said.

After the Tour Down Under, Craddock has his sights set on a few major targets for 2015, with an overall goal of gaining experience in the stage races, with some specific one-weekers in mind already. “I’d love to give the Vuelta another crack, but I think before that I’ll go straight back to Europe after Australia. I won’t do as many of those Belgian spring races as I did this year, kind of focus more on the weeklong stage races. Catalunya and Pais Vasco are in the schedule and obviously California is a really big goal for me. And I think because of this year and how things have been going already, it’s shaping up to be a good 2015,” he said.

In terms of expectations and objectives, Craddock makes it clear that he still has a lot to learn, but he’s motivated and aiming high in the races that he thinks suit him best. Asked if what he’s learned and the numbers he’s seeing in his offseason training give him confidence that he can contend in more stage races in 2015, Craddock said, “I hope so. Maybe not so much in the bigger races but in the smaller races where I’ll have a chance to succeed. But I’m still really young and I’m still trying to learn as much as I can, racing the big weeklong races like Catalunya and Pais Vasco. I didn’t do those this year so I am not really sure what to expect. . . . We’ll just see and I’ll just take it as it comes.”

-Dane Cash

Photo by Naoto Sato.

December 29, 2014