Life in the Peloton

Lawson Craddock was preparing and hoping that first of all he would get selected for this years Tour De France, and then secondly if he did get selected that he would be fit enough to do his job in the team and then ultimately arrive to Paris. But that all changed after the stage 1 when he crashed and fractured the spine of his scapula. From then on the Tour was turned on it’s head for him as he literally battled through every kilometre of each stage right to the finish in Paris. I watched him battle through on TV and now it was great to hear from him about his 2018 Tour De France. 

We have known each other for our entire cycling careers. And in many ways have grown up together in the cycling world. Something I have always noticed and admired about Simon Clarke is that he is the ultimate professional. In everything Simon does, he does it at 100%, leaving no stone unturned. There is a lot to be learnt from him, and just being around him throughout my career there is no doubt a lot of his standards have washed off on me but i am sure also on both past and current team mates.

This one is a bit more for the tech heads out there, but i am sure all with learn something about life in the peloton.

Our sprinter and our local guide . The Italian Stallion, Sacha Modolo. And my last recording on the race. He was ever so close this Giro to taking a stage win, being a 2 times Giro stage winner he knows how to be first across the line in his home race. It’s interesting to hear a Italian’s take on this years race.

My room mate, my team mate, my groupetto companion. The Belgian Tom Van Asbroeck. Things are getting tired here as we get ready for the final day in Rome today. Tom is a great rider, very handy sprinter himself, but has shown here how versatile he can be as a lead out man as well. It’s great to hear his battle stories of this final week of this years Giro and to learn a little bit about his past. 

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As the tour drags on, we are on to our next teammate. Introducing DownTown Nate Brown. The kind assassin. A power house teammate, and a brilliant guy to boot. Nate give us a inside to where we are at in the Giro at the final rest day as well as his story to where he is today as a cyclist.

Next up is Joe Dombrowski. A big character on our squad. A Baby Giro winner and now on his third Giro, so he know’s his way around the Italian roads. Joe quickly made his mark on the road cycling scene after switching form mountain biking and never looked back. He had a rough start to his professional career, but now tells us how he has clawed his way back on track.

We found a moment on the second rest day here at the Giro d’Italia to sit down and have a yarn with English climber and breakaway specialist Hugh Carthy. Hugh in his 4th year as a pro and is starting to find his feet at riding Grand Tours, especially here in his 2nd Giro. We chat about his day up front in a long breakaway and about is less traveled road across to the European professional cycling circuit.

I am on the road for the 1st Grand Tour of the year the Giro d’Italia, and in our team, EF Education First – Drapac Powered By Cannondale, we have a lot of different dynamics of charters. We will be spending a lot of time together out on the road as well as back in the hotels. Apart from talking about what is going on in the race I thought it would be a great chance to find out about everyone on my team in this Giro. 

First up is Mike Woods. A Canadian who came late into the cycling game after being forced via injury to hang the running shoes up as a worlds class middle distance runner. He has a fresh view on life in the peloton both in the way that he races and in his over mind set. There is a lot to talk to Woodsy about, and today we only just scratch the surface. We talk a little bit about his story and a little bit about the Giro. Enjoy.

12 months ago I became a Father. As did Kiel Reijnen 6 months earlier. And little did we know about being a father in general, let alone being a father while trying to race our bikes. After chatting to Kiel in the peloton I found out that I wasn’t alone with these feelings, and that we were among many others who were all in the same boat. It’s a juggle, but one that we enjoy immensely. It has brought fantastic prospective to the sport but also to our lives. This is something that Kiel and I chat about and relate to each others new challenges of being a Father of the Peloton.

Can you fathom racing 21 days in a row? It would get pretty tough, physically and of course mentally. Well in the bike racing world, that is called a grand tour. And there are 3 that run through the cycling calendar year. The first being the Giro d’Italia, followed by the Tour de France and finishing with the Vuelta Espana. Well now imagine riding 1 short of a grand tour, and I mean not 21 stages, but 20 grand tours in a row. Never crashing out, never becoming a victim to sickness, let alone your body or mind simply saying enough is enough. Well that is what Adam Hansen is on the cusp of. Having finished last season with 19 consecutive Grand Tours to his name, this season he embarks on number 20, and who knows how many more.

But as I find out in this chat with him, Adam is a lot more than the Grand Tour record he has to his name. He is among many other things, one being a computer programer simply enjoying racing his bike for a living.  Enjoy.

He almost doesn’t need a intro, Phil Liggett is the voice of cycling. When I hear his voice it just takes me back to when I first fell in love with the sport watching the 6.30pm SBS highlights of the Tour De France, the Jan Ullrich Lance Armstrong battles. It was a real pleasure to be able to sit down with Phil and talk to him about his time behind the mic commentating over 44 Tour De Frances.

Luke and I found a bit of time this week between the big Classic races, Ronde Van Vlaanderen and Paris Roubaix, to answer all your inquisitive questions. Sit back and enjoy, cause we did recording and answering them!

While obviously being tied up in the male professional peloton, I realised I don’t really have any idea about what life is like within the female peloton. Gracie Elvin is at the top of the female racing scene, especially when it comes to the tough style of racing in Belgium. She has already been twice Australian champion and is able to give a really good insight to her life on the road as a female Pro.  

Marcel Kittel is a house hold name when it comes to the big bunch sprints today. He has won stages in all 3 Grand Tours, La Vuelta Espana, Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France. But it is not so well known that when he first singed as a professional with Skil-Shimano in 2011, he was signed primarily as a time-trialist who might be able to pull a good lead out for the sprinters. Things soon changed. He and I were teammates 2011 and it was nice to be there at the beginning of his stella career, and to now get the chance to discuss what has happened since those early days.

We all worry about the physical training that needs to take place in order for us to perform on a given race day. But I think not enough attention is paid to the mental training that should take place to have us ready psychologically to tackle the big race days. It can literally be the difference between the winners and the losers, having that right mind set. I was lucky enough to have the time to meet Craig Appaneal in my off season this year and we discussed some situations that I have encountered through out my career, where things went well and where things didn’t go so well. We then try and decipher what was happening in my head on those given days. Craig has a background in organisational psychology which not only looks at a individual, but also how a individual acts and works within a team and then how that team works in a organisation.  I think he is a person we can all benefit from in not only the performance side of cycling but in all aspects of our lives.

We are back for 2017, and what a way to start with Simon Gerrans. We all know him as an assassin on the bike, a winning machine, where it sometimes feels like he is winning more races than he is losing. But what I wanted to find out, was when did that switch get turned on for him, from being a rider who can win, to a rider who is expected to win. I get inside that cool calm collected mind of his that when inside the final few hundred meters of a race can make unbelievable race winning decisions.

To finish off, hang in there after the music at the end for the first live feed segment podcast I have done, not very successfully but it’s a bit of fun anyway.

English Version – Fast Forward to the 46min mark to watch when Gerrans attacks.

Greenedge Backstage pass of San Remo 2012

World Championships 2014 Ponferrada Spain.

Stage 3 Tour De France when Darryl Impy shows that calm head of his to deliver Simon Gerrans perfectly to out sprint Peter Sagan.

After always seeing him wiz by on the back of a moto bike snapping away during a race, I had the opportunity to pin Graham Watson down here at the last race of the season. It may come as a surprise but most often than not we do not stay in the same hotels throughout the year, so when we were I took the opportunity to have a chat. And just as expected through out his colourful 37 years of taking photo’s of the sport of cycling he has some fantastic insights to all the eras he’s been though during his time in the Peloton. Its great to hear things about the world of cycling from someone who is right there with us on the road, yet shares a different view.

Mario Scirea gives Stefano Giuliani a lift in the 1997 Tour of Spain

Andre Tchmil in the 2001 Paris – Roubaix

Alan Davis crowd surfing 2009 Tour Down Under

Mario Cipollini smokes a cigarette during a stage of the 1994 Paris Nice

Sean Yates in the 1993 Paris – Roubaix

Armstrong & Ullrich in the 2001 Tour De France

Laurent Fignon at the end of the 1989 Tour De France

Greg Lemond on his way to winning the 1989 Tour De France

Greg Lemond after winning the the 1989 Tour De France

Nick Schultz is a young Australian making his way into the European Pro ranks. He has taken a road not so often traveled anymore by Australians into the Euro cycling world. He jumped in the deep end, and immersed himself in the French scene. He has slowly but surely worked his way through the cycling ranks and created an all important european life for himself along the way.

It’s this jump from living at home in Australia with Mum and Dad as a 18 year old, to taking a  leap to a whole new culture and lifestyle, living on your own and facing all challenges that come along the way that can sometimes get over looked from everyone from afar. It’s nice to hear that you can do it if you really want too.

This time I have some fun talking with my new team mate Chris Juul-Jensen. And he is not all the apricot Danish he is made out to be. He turned professional with Saxo-Tinkoff in 2012, and has now made the move across to Orica-Greenedge for 2016. We talk changing teams, changing countries and about the worlds best cappuccino, among many other things. Sit back and enjoy.

Sydney 2000
Olympic Games
Madison Men Final
Mc Grory Scott / Aitken Brett

Had the pleasure to speak with my first idol, my old sports director and now friend, Olympic Gold Medalist Scott Mcgrory. I was lucky enough to be there the night Scott and Brett won the Gold Medal in the Madison at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. This was before I really even knew what cycling was, let alone track cycling. From this night on I wanted to be a cyclist, and so the rest is history. But the story behind the gold medal has never been told to me, and I thought it would be interesting to find out what was behind my inspiration that started me in the sport of cycling.

Luke Rowe on his way to a BIG top 10 in the 2015 Paris – Roubaix

Speaking with the Welshman Luke Rowe. He has been riding on team Sky for the last 4 years and has developed himself into Belgium cobble stone spring Classics Specialist. Luke stepped up last year finishing 8th in Paris Roubaix and we take a moment while here racing the Jayco Herald SunTour to discuss what it is to be a real classic hard man. And explain just what exactly a Belgium one day Classics race is.

For the inaugural Podcast, I decided to speak with my team mate and close friend Luke Durbridge. Luke turned professional with the Australian outfit Orica GreenEdge when the team started back in 2012. Now entering his 5th year as a pro, I thought he would be interesting to speak to about how he now approaches his season, what type of rider he is and the make up of riders in a ProTour team…