The Coffee Ride #71, with Reece Homfray
AUSTRALIA’S top cyclist Simon Gerrans has called on long-time Victorian Institute of Sport coach Dave Sanders to help him overcome an injury-riddled season in time for Saturday’s Tour de France.
Cycling
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cycling. Followed categories will be added to My News.
AUSSIE CYCLING FRESHLY BREWED EVERY WEDNESDAY MORNING, EXCLUSIVE TO ADVERTISER.COM.AU
GERRANS CHERRY RIPE FOR TOUR
AUSTRALIA’S top cyclist Simon Gerrans has called on long-time Victorian Institute of Sport coach Dave Sanders to help him overcome an injury-riddled season in time for Saturday’s Tour de France.
Sanders flew to Europe to join Gerrans on an intensive two-week training camp in the Pyrenees at Andorra last month after the Orica-GreenEDGE star had recovered from a broken collarbone and elbow caused by separate crashes this year.
Gerrans admits crashing four times in five months — which ruined his entire Australian summer, Tour Down Under and Liege-Bastogne-Liege title defences — had been one of the most challenging times of his career.
“Physically I probably feel a lot fresher than I would normally be at this time of year because I’ve had some enforced rest due to the injuries,” Gerrans told News Corp this week.
“But to honest with you, mentally it has been a tough year.
“To keep copping setback after setback, I’ve had some really untimely crashes and it feels like every time I’ve hit the ground this year I’ve broken something.”
But having ridden two weeks of the Giro d’Italia in May and with Sanders’ training camp leading into the Criterium du Dauphine earlier this month, Gerrans says the numbers in training indicate he should be competitive when the Tour begins in The Netherlands on the weekend.
“With Davo we’ve all got such a long relationship with the guy, he knows us so well and he’s so reliable, he’s a bit of a rock that you go back to,” Gerrans, 35, said.
“He was there on standby to support all my training rides on the scooter and he followed me around and paced me quite a bit.
“We did a good little block of training to keep things ticking along and that’s the real platform you fall back on in races like the Tour de France.
“Sometimes it’s a matter of just going back to the most simple, basic things that Davo does so well which makes a big difference.
“You’ve got to get the fundamentals right and the basics done and that’s what Davo is so good at, it’s great that he’s willing and able to jump on a plane from Australia and make sure we’re getting those things right.”
Despite the repeated interruptions to the first half of his season, Gerrans said he would start the Tour de France — where he has won three stages and in 2013 wore the yellow jersey — with confidence.
“I’ve managed to play catch-up from the beginning of April. I’ve strung a couple of stage races together, I did a couple of weeks of the Giro and the Dauphine and now to the Tour I’ve pretty much caught up on race days,” he said.
“With all the technology we have these days we can monitor our training load and preparation and level very closely, I think I’m at a very good level and should be very competitive at the Tour.
“It’s been a rocky season but I always say ‘you’re only one good race away from changing your season from a difficult one to a good one’ so hopefully we can do that in the next couple of weeks.”
The problems started for Gerrans in December when he broke his collarbone while riding his mountain bike at home in Victoria.
“That was the first one so I thought ‘well everyone has a setback every now and then’ and I moved on to the next objective and from that point I knew I could still do a really good preparation for my spring campaign,” he said.
“But when I broke my elbow in my first race in Europe (Strade Bianche in March) and it really put my whole spring — my second objective — in jeopardy I thought ‘oh this is getting a bit heavy’ but I tried to stay light-hearted about it thinking it would be a week on the trainer and then I’d be back out on the road.
“But it dragged out a bit longer than that and took that bit longer to heal.
“Then I didn’t have enough racing or preparation to do a good spring so that was the injury that really dampened my spirits for a while.
“Then when I finally got back into racing — to crash twice in Liege-Bastogne-Liege (in April) as defending champion I thought ‘this season is just not happening for me so far’.
“I had so many people come up to me in the peloton, mates I’ve been racing with and against for years and say ‘you know what, we all go through it, the wheels turns, one minute you’re on the top and the next minute you’re on the bottom so you just have to ride it out’.
“When I think about the bad luck I had at the very beginning of last year’s Tour de France and run of bad luck I’ve had so far this year — I’m due for something to go my way so hopefully it happens in the Tour.”
Unlike previous years, OGE is unlikely to target the yellow jersey in the first week of the Tour because it starts with a 13.8km individual time trial which Gerrans concedes may be a touch too long for he or his teammates to win.
But that won’t hold them back from going for stage wins throughout the entire race with British identical twins Simon and Adam Yates giving them options in the mountains.
“There are going to be some great opportunities in the first week of the race and the Yates brothers are going to be in the team so if we can hold those guys back until we get into some of the larger mountain days and see what they can do, hopefully we’ll all be pleasantly surprised because we know what these kids are capable of,” Gerrans said.
BEAUTY OF THE TDU CAPTURED ON FILM
THE race route for the 2016 Santos Tour Down Under will be unveiled in Adelaide tomorrow.
To coincide with the announcement, TDU organisers have released a short cycling-inspired video titled ‘Pleasure in Pain’ which was edited by Daylight Breaks as part of the Through Local Eyes digital film campaign.
The four-minute video which you can watch below is narrated by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen and features footage from this year’s TDU and Bupa Challenge Tour.
“Once cycling is in your blood, you can never get rid of it. In pain there is pleasure. They’re
all suffering and laughing at the same time,” Liggett says in the video.
BUDGET-FORKLIFTS TO RIDE TOUR OF UTAH
A BIG result for Australian men’s track endurance team member Scott Sunderland this week who won the Tour of America’s Dairyland.
The two-time reigning 1km TT Commonwealth champion won the 11-stage race with Budget Forklifts on the weekend.
Amazing feeling claiming the overall after 11 day of @TOADCyclingRace. @BudgetForklifts boys rode unreal all series! pic.twitter.com/ZeURxH4knB
— Scott Sunderland (@scottysundo) June 29, 2015
It was a fitting reward for Sunderland whose early season was interrupted by surgery to fix a broken collarbone.
In further good news for Budget Forklifts, the team has been invited to ride the Tour of Utah in August where they will test themselves against a WorldTour quality field including BMC Racing Team, Cannondale-Garmin and Trek Factory Racing.
NEXT GEN — ALEX MANLY
IN THE lead up to the 2016 Olympics, The Coffee Ride is profiling emerging young Australian cyclists who are targeting Rio — and more importantly beyond.
This week it’s South Australia’s Alex Manly who is riding with Orica-AIS in Europe and just completed the Aviva Women’s Tour.
Name: Alex Manly
Age: 19
From: Nairne, SA, (born in Kalgoorlie)
My earliest cycling memory is: My dad building a bike for me out of parts he had found.
My first bike was: A BMX.
I prefer the road/velodrome: I love aspects of both. Especially the sense of freedom and working with a team. On the road you get to see so many cool things. But the quick thinking, speed and variety on the track is probably my favourite.
Biggest breakthrough as a junior: Winning the u19 individual time trial in 2013.
Biggest result as an elite cyclist: Winning the team pursuit at the world cup in Columbia.
My coach Jason Niblett’s favourite saying is: “Keep ticking boxes and learning from each race”.
My personal motto for life or cycling is: “Follow your bliss” and “One who comes to save warriors”.
The cyclist I have the most respect for is: Marianne Vos
Main goals for 2015: To take as much away from my development opportunity in Europe with the Orica girls, make a world cup TP team.
And 2016: Make the Rio Olympics, make it to track worlds.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK ...
“They’re also no-fuss guys. What I really enjoy about working with them is they come to races and just get on with things, and when you look at guys from that generation, they’re a few and far between.”
- OGE director Matt White on Simon and Adam Yates.
“I didn’t think I’d won it until the last right-hand bend when I saw Cav wasn’t on my wheel.”
- Peter Kennaugh after defending his British national road race championship on the weekend.
“Crunch time. Richie Porte has to get through this year’s Tour de France without a bad day and finish in the top 10 for other teams to believe he’s a genuine Tour contender in the future.”
- Cycling commentator Matt Keenan on The Bike Lane on Sunday.
TWEET, TWEET
— Rachel Neylan preparing to start the Giro Rosa with Orica-AIS.
Originally published as The Coffee Ride #71, with Reece Homfray
Aussie cycling star in blood clot scare
A star Aussie cyclist who has won four stages on the Tour de France is out of this year’s race after a scary find by team doctors.
Aussie’s epic solo escape to claim maiden Grand Tour stage win
Aussie cyclist Luke Plapp held a bottle of bubbly as he revealed the emotional roller coaster of his season so far after taking out his maiden Grand Tour stage win.