Blogs 
Bad Morning Good Day: Stage 12 (3km wall finale)(0)
Sadly, Tyler abandoned yesterday as his body finally said “enough”. We were all disappointed for him. It was very saddening to see his face, which showed the acute disappointment he felt.
The race itself did go on, however, and typically, Garmin-Transitions were flying the flag despite the setbacks. Ryder repeatedly attacked the peloton and chased every other cyclists’s attack until he finally found himself in the break of the day.
Hump Day & Humdrum: Stage 11 (bunchie)(0)
As the physio on team Garmin-Transitions, all I can say is this is a dangerous sport.
All things considered, 3rd place for Tyler yesterday was a fantastic effort by the whole team, with Dave Zabriskie helping to control the break for most of the day, Johan Van Summeren bringing our boys to the front of the peloton with 4km to go, Martijn taking a big turn to maintain our position at the front, Julian doing the perfect job to put Ty where he needed to be to contest the sprint and then Tyler eking the absolute maximum possible out of his body to gain third place. It was a brilliant team performance.
A Hard “Easy” Day: Stage 10 (breakaway)(0)
Yesterday was always going to be the day that the breakaway succeeded. The profile of the course and the stages on the days either side of it meant that neither the GC nor the sprinter teams would be interested. It wasn’t hard enough to separate the GC lads, but wasn’t easy enough for the sprinters to make it to the finish with the main bunch.
That meant that the first race of the day was to get into the break, and so the first hour of racing was extremely fast as small groups tried to get away and were hauled back by teams who didn’t have someone in the break and so on and so forth.
Another Day, Another Epic: Stage 9 (mountains)(0)
Yesterday’s stage was a 204km monster through hot weather over a series of significant climbs, totalling about 4.5km (vertical) of climbing all up. The climbs were spread at the start and end of the race, with a relatively flat section through the middle of the day. Enormous by any standards.
The pre-start ritual of sunscreen, strapping tape, DZ Nuts application, etc was added to by a Dave Zabriskie play list from great movies of the 1980s, particularly Top Gun, Karate Kid and Beverly Hills Cop. To hear “You’re the best around” for the first time in decades was golden!
Allergic to Stairs: Rest Day 1(0)
I can remember watching the Tour in the years before being a part of the race.
I was always completely gutted that just when things got interesting and they’d had a few mountain stages, there would be a rest day.
Now, the rest day is like a shining light off in the distance that you can see, and know everything will be better for it.
Double Challenge: Stage 8 (mountaintop)(0)
Mountain stages in bike races are inevitably decisive in sorting where riders finish in the race overall. They pose a number of challenges to a team atop the obvious physical barrier of the terrain itself.
The main non-terrain issue on these stages is the weather. When going uphill, the speed drops, and so there is less cooling thanks to the wind, whilst the reverse happens on the descent, which is compounded by the boys having sweated more than normal on the way up. So on hot days, there are issues of overheating on the ascents, and when it’s cold, we worry about them getting too cold on the descents.
All the bad luck at once!(0)
So it’s been a few weeks since my last blog post.
This is because I was waiting until something went my way again… I’m still waiting! The last few weeks of racing has been filled with bad luck, with mechanical problems at the wrong times and a few crashes to go with, not to mention a national championships that was reduced to a training ride.
I suppose I can count myself lucky until now with very few problems this season, however they all seem to have come at once.
Weight of a Nation: Stage 7 (hilltop)(0)
Today was the first mountain stage of the race, and the second chance for the big hitters to test each others’ legs and see who was looking dangerous and who not. I just love the mountaintop stages in these races!
Sitting in the bus heading up the hill, you get such a good look at what the boys are going to need to deal with, see all of the people in various states of excitement, and just build yourself up into a crescendo of anticipation for what is about to come.
Book out the window: Stage 6 (bunchie)(0)
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. How many times can I be surprised at how tough and courageous our boys are? This is something I’m happy being wrong about!
Relativity of Time: Stage 5 (bunchie)(0)
I have a great mate who has a theory on the relative speed of time passing.
He believes that time should be measured experientially, rather than chronologically (similar to Dunbar in Catch-22, who believes if he does nothing for long enough, time will drag out to the point that he will effectively live forever). I think there’s something to this from the point of view of the brain. It feels like a couple of months ago that we had the prologue up in Rotterdam, and weeks ago that the Roubaix cobbles stage took place, and yet today is only Stage 6.
The Two Day Theory: Stage 4 (bunchie)(0)
It is a very fortunate thing that the situation that Garmin-Transitions is in during this Tour is a first time for all of us involved. The fortune I speak of is partly that we’ve never had to deal with nigh on half of our team all being pretty badly wounded on the one descent, and partly that the fretting resulting from this would leave us, the staff, nervous wrecks.
I have made up a totally anecdotal “two day” theory regarding peoples’ responses to injury and trauma. It’s completely without scientific evidence or backing, but does explain a pattern of behaviour that I have regularly seen over the years.
The Bounce: Stage 3 (mini Roubaix)(0)
We came to this Tour with nine guys ready to race.
We’re down our leader and facing some injuries, but if yesterday proved anything it’s that we’re still up for it. The day started out with a little stress, considering the injuries some of the guys were going to go over cobbles with.
However, the show must go on, and despite the misgivings, we were still pretty psyched yesterday morning-we have a very talented bunch of blokes in this team, and so we were still hoping to do a bit of damage today, and the plan went ahead as normal.
Perfect Storm of Crap: Stage 2 (mini LBL)(0)
All talk of the Mock aside, holy crap. What a day.
Yesterday’s stage was dubbed a mini Liege-Bastogne-Liege as it covered a segment of the same course as that particular race. For those not in the know, LBL is one of the major Spring Classics on the calendar. It’s a tough race with lots of short, sharp hills on very small old roads. The weather was also particularly Belgian Spring Classic-esque: overcast with sporadic bursts of rain.
Always Fear The Mock: Stage 1 (bunchie)(0)
The Mock. Some would say that this is the most powerful force in the universe, and yet it has never been quantified. I for one am a firm believer in the Mock, and think that CERN should be turning their attention to investigating the power of the Mock, rather than the trivialities of the God particle, Higgs boson and what-all else you want to talk about.
Solid Kick-off(0)
Finally we’re underway! And what a start it’s been.
Time trial days are always long periods of surprising quietness (and the quiet is always a surprise) punctuated by flurries of furious activity. As team mechanic-cum-philosopher Kris Withington (NZ’s finest mechanic) says, “it’s either full gas work or full gas wait.”
