Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Consistent Aggression (Tour of Britain 2010)

-

HomeJournalsGarmin Physio Toby WatsonConsistent Aggression (Tour of Britain 2010)

Consistent Aggression. I’m in Ipswich, southeast England, and have finally found time to get finger to keyboard (what is the modern equivalent of “pen to paper”?) to scribble (again — what’s the digital version of scribbling? — such important questions on this blog!) down a little of what’s been going on.

This is a very cool race — it goes through beautiful countryside, and the number of fans out on the roads is incredible. There have been a lot of tough stages ranging from mini-Classics stages, through to out and out bunch sprints.

The only beef we as the team staff have with the show is the British traffic. It is so bad that the organisers have to get the whole stage finished well before peak hour, meaning the stages are starting some two hours earlier than we are used to.

Consistent Aggression
Cameron Meyer, multiple track champion and going to be a road great too.

There’s a lot of stuff that needs doing when at bike races in the mornings! And we live in Spain! Early morning hours are double figures where we live! There are eyeballs starting to hang out of heads with fatigue as we prepare for Day 7 of this early morning madness. It’s madness I tell you!

That aside, it’s been a good show thus far, despite us losing half of our team to various ailments. As the season comes to an end I am coming across more and more fatigue-related problems — be it physical fatigue leading to pain on the bike, or just a build-up of systemic stress affecting overall health and well-being. This is normal, and is evident in many of the teams in the peloton. It’s a long season of racing, and we still have more to come!

At this race, Garmin-Transitions have been flying the flag with aplomb, but not as much success as we would like. We have been awarded the most aggressive rider for three of the last four stages, and arguably could have received it for the fourth of those stages too.

Unfortunately, each of these gutsy moves (two each by Cameron Meyer and Dan Martin) have been thwarted by the bunch, with our boys being caught in the final 5km too often for it to be funny any more.

On the Queen Stage in Wales Cam was in a group of seven or eight riders, and shot off the front of them for 30 of the final 35km of the stage, only to be caught by the GC contenders in the final 5km in the move that has defined the overall standings of the race.

With massive thanks to Natalie who was on the final cobbled 20% hill (yes, that is as ridiculously hard as it sounds) — here is a link to a cracker of a video of Cam in the hurt box and then Trav getting up the hill anyway he could!

Not to be outdone, Dan then got himself into the break for two consecutive days, the first day launching more attacks on the peloton, his fellow break contenders, and the lumpy roads of southwest England than can be adequately described. That he didn’t win was a huge disappointment as he had truly lit the stage up for virtually the whole show.

His second day up the road (he’s not afraid of a bit of punishment) saw him in a group of ten or so, and he made the decisive move of the race in the final 10km, splitting that group to pieces, but was probably carrying a little too much from the previous day to be able to close the deal.

Cameron’s second day up the road happened today. He was rolling along with one other rider, with quite a handy lead over the bunch when they passed us in the feed zone. We drove along listening to the race radio updates, oscillating between hope and deflation as the numbers first meant the break would stick, then seemed like it wouldn’t, then vice versa and repeat.

Cam spent the final 10km or so dangling off the front of the race, having done away with his break companion earlier. We were shouting at the radio (similar to when JackyBobby was up the road in Eneco) willing Cam to stay away, or for the peloton to lose organisation, or for him to suddenly find an extra 5km/hr, or SOMEthing, and were finally deflated to hear that he had been caught just before the 1km to go banner.

We’ve been super proud of their efforts, and disappointed they haven’t been rewarded as well as we would like (and think they deserve) for them. But that is bike racing.

We also have Christian Meier sitting in 7th place overall, having been in the key break on the second stage of the race, and so are in there swinging. If just one thing goes our way, we’ll be sending them out of the park.

It’s been a strong performance by a weakened team thus far, and we still have two more stages to get a little more action out there.

I have to wrap it up here though. Apparently there are TWO six o’clocks every day, and I have to be up for the one I didn’t know about. Ohhh the agony of this job. Hahahaha!!! Still living the dream.

Toby Watson
Toby Watsonhttps://www.veloveritas.co.uk
Ex-Garmin Transitions physiotherapist and soigneur Toby Watson brings you inside the squad, and shows you what it's like to be working with a top team on the biggest races in the world. Through his regular blog updates, Toby shares his sense of drama and fun that were essential parts of his job. Toby is Australian, and currently lives in Girona with his fiancee Amanda. If he has any time, he enjoys reading and running, and occasionally skiing too, when he can.

Related Articles

Back Swinging

Back Swinging. After what seems like both forever, and no time at all, we're headed to the final stanza of this year's Tour. Today's stage is another medium mountain stage, with only one Cat. 2 climb to deal with, followed by a short descent into the town of Gap. The day is a steady climb uphill for the majority of the day, with two sharp descents that may be of note for general standings-the descent that leads to the Col de Manse (the climb of the day) and then the 11km after the summit of the Col, which is all downhill to the finish.

How far to go? Stage 16 TdF2010 (mountain)

How far to go. Stage 16 TdF2010 was the biggest climbing stage of the Tour, but the last climb was some 60km from the finish, which made for a weird looking profile for the day. The boys scaled four enormous mountains, the first beginning from km 0. Tough gig.

Early Shows Of Form

Early Shows Of Form... The “Mini Liege” Stage has been done and dusted, and the next big thing in bike racing (if he isn’t already there) has shown he will be competitive at the very highest level. Peter Sagan entered the stage as one of the favourites for the win, and was flawless in executing his victory. He is not as quick as Cav (and never will be) but can contest so many more finales as he is able to stay with the leaders on tougher stages.

Traditional Bunch Kick v3 – TDF 2012 St 5

Stage 5 is a guaranteed Traditional Bunch Kick. It is in the mold of the traditional early week flat stages of the Tour from years gone by. It is a 197km shot across the northeast of France, coincidentally passing very close to where the Australian WW1 cemetery at Villers-Brettoneux is located. A very moving place.

At Random

Le Tour de France 2012 – Stage 4: Abbeville – Rouen, 214 km.

Maybe it’s our fault? Yesterday we said that ‘barring Acts of God,’ Cav would win. We got it half right; there was an almighty ‘Act of God’ with South African champion Robbie Hunter bouncing around the road like a rubber doll and a whole clutch of riders biting the dust. As the director cut to close up and what was happening at the crash site, there was Cav sitting on the tar, stunned. He’s a tough wee soul – ''stoic is the word, I think. Abbeville.

Nico Mattan – “When you win on your home territory, it’s very special”

In 2005, Nico Mattan grabbed victory in one of the most controversial editions of Gent – Wevelgem ever held. The newspapers ran and ran with it but Sean Kelly saw “no problems” with the result.

Book out the window: TdF 2010 Stage 6 (bunchie)

Book out the window. There was a quote one of our boys gave on a day he crashed twice in 200m: “I thought I was pretty good at riding my bike.” Upon watching the final sprints and the way our boys have set up the lead-out train in the past two days, I think I could be forgiven for thinking something similar about what I do for a job.

Dan Fleeman – British Cross Country Marathon Mountain Bike Champion

Dan Fleeman has been British National U23 Road Race Champion and twice British Hill Climb Champion; and now he's gone and won another national title - the British Cross Country Marathon Mountain Bike Championship. We'd been meaning to speak to him about his new title for ages but needed our memories jogged; so he came up with eighth place in the Beaumont Trophy road race putting him among the UCI Euro Tour points. And then - he placed 14th in the British Elite Road Race Championship.