Are you asking “Is Jens next?” A fascinating look back at veteran Jens Voigt’s career, and his thoughts on a sport riddled with doping scandals.

- By Jens Voigt

Photo: James Startt

But I’m sure you have heard comments like that before, and I’m well aware of something called “guilt by association,” so maybe some of you don’t really believe me. So let’s walk through this, and let me try to shed some light on my career and hopefully make it clear that I just did not ever dope.


Let’s start early. OK, there should be no doubt that when I was a kid, from age 9 until 14, there was no dope, and I believe it’s absolutely the same today. Later, I qualified for a special sports-school program back in the days of East Germany, and I moved to Berlin where I lived in a dormitory. I trained and went to school there as a junior, and there was still no dope.


Then I turned 18 and did a few races with the East German national team. I was in the national team but I wasn’t on the elite traveling team going to big events such as the Peace Race or world championships. I was just a young talent, of which there were many. Now, of course with what we know today about the East German sports system, it’s clear that there was a fair amount of doping and it was actually put in place by the government. But I was lucky because before I was old enough, or good enough, to be confronted with the question, the Berlin Wall had collapsed and Germany was reunited.

I continued to race with the German national team after that, but it was more controlled by what was West Germany and honestly I didn’t see any signs of doping. I raced as an amateur until 1996 and I didn’t see anything! By that point I was racing on an international level as an amateur and I won some races, but also lost plenty. Basically, I didn’t see anything that resembled doping at all. And since other riders were racing at my level as well, I figured that they were clean, too.


Then, in 1997, I turned pro with ZVVZ-Giant-AIS, an Australian-Czech team. As hopefully everybody knows, the Australians have very strict rules against doping, and they have for a long time. So with them, even the thought of doping was an absolute no go. We competed in some races and had some great results, but we also got our behinds kicked a few times. Then I finally signed with a big team in 1998, with Team GAN, which later became Crédit Agricole, and I had six great years there. When I came in everything was new, especially the French language. I did a crash course in French and in how to train, as well as in racing and wine and cheese.



And it was there that I had my first experience with doping because, as you know, 1998 was the year of the Festina Affair. Now I was still a neo-pro officially (the neo-professional title technically lasts for the first two years of a professional career) in 1998, but I was fortunate enough to be selected to ride the Tour de France.

“Wow!” I thought. “This is my childhood dream come true!” But then I went to Dublin for the prologue and I saw my childhood dream shattered by doping. The whole Festina Affair just left me thinking, “Really? There are so many people involved. It was almost so perfectly organised. And there’s no sign of a guilty conscience?”


I was shocked. And shockwaves ripped through the Tour that year as riders were getting caught and kicked out of the race. Teams went home, there were protests on the road, and there were even talks about canceling the race entirely. It was terrible and terrifying.


And let me make it clear: On a personal level, I was not doping. I’d had one win that year, a stage in the Tour of the Basque Country. Now that may be one of the hardest races of the season, but my win was particular. I was getting my head kicked in for the first four days, and was about an hour down in the overall standings. So I just attacked on a short morning stage before the afternoon time trial, and of course the favourites let me get away with a couple of other guys in a similar situation. In addition, it was cold, windy, rainy, and, in short, perfect conditions for me. Eventually I managed to drop the others to win my first pro race. So while there may well have been guys on EPO in the race, the circumstances of my victory were particular.

Now personally I thought that the Festina Affair would be a turning point for cycling. It certainly reinforced to me that doping was wrong and not something I ever wanted to get involved with, not ever. My wife, Stephanie, and I were starting what would become our family of six children, and the thought that my kids would one day learn that their dad was a doper just was not a possibility. 
And the Festina Affair was just so big that it threatened to kill our sport unless everyone woke up and used a little common sense and understood that the doping problem had to stop. I mean, what else would it take to show people that we were on the wrong path here?

Well, history has shown us that Festina was not enough. That said, I do believe the doping problems decreased a lot in the years that followed, and I can tell you that on my French team, doping was a no go. The French teams were the first to install the longitudinal testing that would eventually become the “biological passport.” Team management often pointed out how important it was to ride clean, and I’m pretty sure that none of my teammates were doing anything, and I know I wasn’t. And we sure were not getting any results where people would go, “Hmm, I don’t know about that.” Now, I had some good wins in those years, but hey, I’m a good rider, so I should have some good wins!

Then I signed with Bjarne Riis and CSC. After six years on Crédit Agricole I was ready for a change. And Riis offered that, because in 2004 he had the most different and innovative team out there. I mean, who had ever heard of survival camps? In addition to training hard, we had some of the most sophisticated training programs. We had the best time-trial equipment, and Bjarne gave us tremendous team spirit and made it fun to race together.


Perhaps his strength was that he paid attention to every detail and that’s why we hit the ground running and won a lot of races early in the season. For example, we did 300 to 400 kilometers of training on our TT bikes before the first race. Heck, some teams even today only put their TT bikes together the night before the prologue of Paris-Nice!

(continued)

Daryl shares his best and worst moments of the Tour de France. But there’s little time for post-Tour reflection, it’s straight on to the Olympics.

- By Daryl Impey

What an awesome feeling it was coming on the Champs Élysées! I had goosebumps the whole way around the first lap. There was an amazing roar as we came out of the tunnel and took our first left-hander on to the circuit. This will be one of the most memorable days in my career, that I am certain about.

I had always thought the laps were pan-flat but they aren’t. It’s actually all uphill toward to the Arc de Triomphe and all on cobbles except for the section in the tunnel which is on tarmac. It is a really bumpy circuit and filled with holes from the parade that they have there every year. The older riders in the team told me that it is getting worse every year. Anyway, we executed our plan for the day and our man Gossy was in a good position but Cav was just too good on the day. He is always difficult to beat but we always keep in our heads that he is beatable. And he is.

Our lap of honour was amazing and I stopped at each of the SA flags and thanked them for their support. Some I had known from earlier in the tour and some new faces out there. It is really a great moment getting your photo in front of the Arc de Triomphe and I was proud of what I had achieved. I had a successful tour and Orica GreenEDGE were really thankful and appreciative of the work I did in the tour for them. At our team dinner that evening, we all enjoyed some wine and had a laugh about a couple of the bad days. I know looking back at stage 16 now, I just laugh. Although it was the hardest day for me, at this moment I can just think what I looked like to everyone else. My teammates were even saying that they have never seen me that rough. I remember Baden Cooke saying “Everyone has a bad day mate”. That will stick in my mind forever. The best moment was coming into the Champs Élysées, I think only winning a stage in the tour can pass that feeling.

There was no rest after the Tour, I left on Monday morning to fly to London for the Olympics. I am staying out near the course leading up the Games so that I can do some re-con and also some good motor pacing sessions. On Friday I will head into the village and I race on Saturday. Although I will be the only guy from SA in Olympic Men’s Race, I still fancy my chances to be right up there. After seeing the course, it will be challenging and because there is hardly any recovery time it will be a hard mans circuit but the 50km of flat will make it a bit easier for those dropped to get back on should the front group not be working well. I am hoping for good legs. On Tuesday I felt like I had just started cycling again, but after today I can feel I am coming back. I’ll do a good 5 hour ride tomorrow with some efforts and some motor pacing and hopefully it will kick start my body and get me back into race mode.

Then after the Olympics, I will finally have a chance to be married again and spend some time with my wife Ali, I couldn’t have done any of this without her support.

Daryl Impey

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It’s been a long Tour and Daryl is ready for Paris, the sprint on the Champs-Élysées and a few glasses of champagne with his wife and team. But no rest for the weary – next up: Olympics!

- By Daryl Impey

The day has finally arrived and we’re on the home stretch to Paris. What a journey is has been so far, it’s hard the believe that nearly a month back we were in Liege doing recon. There have been some tough days out there accompanied with a lot of stress. But, the show is not over just yet, we’ve got one more day and one last chance to win a stage here and hopefully it will be this one. We’ve got a good chance and everyone had an easy day on TT bikes yesterday so we should be good to go.

I haven’t seen my wife for a full month so it will be great to see her in Paris afterwards. The team has organised a lunch at the race for all of them, so I’m sure all the wives and girlfriends of my teammates would have had a few glasses of champagne by the time we finish. I can already see myself getting goosebumps on the first lap on the Champs-Élysées. My wife has already told me that there are thousands of cyclists/fans waiting for us in Paris.

After the race we are all spending the night in Paris and having a team dinner together, which should be nice and could maybe even be a bit messy for some. I’d love to have a few beers but the Olympics is next Saturday so I will have to wait until I finish that. It will be good to be able to switch off for just a bit, anyway.

The final week in the Tour is where you see all the difference. Amazing to see some guys actually getting better but the majority of us are all getting tired and the fighting in the group for space at the front has definitely gone. A lot of guys are just going through the motions to finish the Tour and getting to Paris is their only objective. I am one of those :) Although I have been able to do my job at the end in the sprints, I have definitely felt the 3 weeks of racing and torture I have put my body through. Everyday you just wake up with sore legs and you get minor injuries in weird places like your hands, neck, elbows, knees and my rear-end has had enough of the saddle. Time to sit on something more comfortable, like the coach or even better, the beach.

As I said, tomorrow I leave to go to London for the Olympic Games where I will spend a couple of days seeing the course and getting ready for my first Olympics. It has been a really special year for me and I am really thankful to all my friends, family, sponsors and supporters for always being there for me.

Right, for now, it’s one more stage! Time to hurt and get the train right and hopefully pull off that stage win we have been hunting since Liege. The first 60km may be easy but then it’s full gas once we hit the finishing circuits and everyone wants to try eliminate a bunch kick but we’ll be trying to make it one.

Daryl Impey

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- By Jens Voigt

Well, I have to face it. My body is just disintegrating and there will be no recovery for at least three weeks. I have just gone too deep for too long at this year’s Tour de France and my body has finally said stop.

But I am happy. The fact that I am empty now shows that I am human after all. You know there is only so much petrol in the gas tank and I was pushing pretty hard on the accelerator for most of the first two and a half weeks.

And then, on that first day in the Pyrenees I really went too deep, just total depletion. And my body is still paying for it.

Yesterday I had no choice but to ride in the grupetto, but even today it hurt. I was okay on the flats, but even the little climbs really hurt.

But at least I had some time to sit in and think about things today, for a change.

First of all, the day got off to a really cool start as we rolled out past the Airbus factory in Blagnac. Okay it was a little stressful trying to look at all the planes while keeping position in the peloton, but it was really cool. And then at one point this 380 Airbus flew over us with a team of jets flying just under it in military formation. Really beautiful. It’s funny because there is so much talk about the European crisis, but the Airbus story is one of the successes of the European community working together.

But then we got down to some really weird racing.

First it took a long time for the breakaway to get away because just about everyone understood that today was the last day where a breakaway had a real chance to get away.

But then once it did, all the guys that didn’t get in it started chasing. I asked a couple of guys in the peloton what was going on, and we all agreed that we didn’t know. I mean come on, if you are not strong enough to make the break, then why chase it down? What makes you think you will make the next one? Perhaps it is not your day.

Seriously at one point I was thinking that next year, in addition to getting a license, riders and directors should also pass a minimum intelligence test.

But like I said, there were a lot of hungry guys out there.

Well now I am on the bus in the middle of this 400-kilometre transfer before the time trial. But actually it is quite relaxing. Some of the guys were escorted in a helicopter since they are in the top 20 overall. And on my team that is everyone except Popo and me. So here we are with the bus all to ourselves. We’ve got all of this lasagna, salad, and sandwiches. Life is pretty good.

And tomorrow is the final time trial, and for me that means a semi-rest day. Sounds good!

It seems Daryl wasn’t the only one struggling in the mountains.

- By Jens Voigt<

Well, for the second time in this year’s Tour de France I managed to finish in the grupetto and not because I wanted to play smart and safe, but simply because I had no choice.

After turning myself inside out yesterday I paid today for this effort. I guess some of you have heard of my saying, “Shut up legs.” Well today my body revolted. It protested. My body went on ” just stop working mode.” I think my body was trying to tell me that it had had enough of me yelling at it, had enough of my mind forcing it to do things it was not made for!

And since I struggled more or less all day long just to survive this stage, I started looking for some motivation. But then on the descent of the Port de Bales I found one thing that I kind of knew all along. I probably won’t surprise you when I say that I am not exactly a world-champion descender. I am a “careful” descender (I would not go as far as to say that I am a hopeless descender, just a careful descender).

But the grupetto normally descends pretty fast, because all the riders in there hate the mountains, but they are all pretty skillful in bike handing. And about three corners into the descent Bernie (Eisel) with Cav (Cavendish) passed me. I said, “Please Bernie, don’t drop me on the descent and leave me all alone behind.” And he turned around and said, “No worries, we stick all together here.” And in the process of trying to follow them I actually overtook riders!

Then when things went slower after the descent I rode up to Bernie and said, “Did you see that!? Me, I passed two riders on a descent, I must be a legend! That’s gotta be a first time ever!” And Bernie and Cav started laughing so hard they almost fell off their bikes… little fun things to keep the spirit up.

And then I was on some stupid steep climb and some English fans with a flag were yelling, “Go Jens, go, you’re the man!” After yelling that two times they must have discovered that Cav was in the same group and of course they were yelling his name then. And just to lift my own morale and confidence a little I went to guys around me and asked them, “Did you just hear that?! They were yelling my name first and only after that were they cheering for the world champion?”

And as you all can imagine, I am pretty happy that the mountain stages are over. And while I had one of those rare moments in today’s stage, where my head was clear and fully functioning, I calculated that we have just a tiny bit less than 400 kilometres to get to Paris, which on the other side, means we all have more or less exactly 3,000 kilometres in our legs.

And tomorrow we have a 220-kilometre stage and then afterwards we got a nice 400-kilometre bus transfer ahead of us. That means we will arrive around midnight at the hotel. Well, no one ever said the Tour is easy, right? I’d better recharge my iPod and my Game Boy and we will have lots of food in the bus—so bring it on.

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Riding for Team RadioShack-Nissan, now in his 16th year as a professional, Jens Voigt has earned a reputation as one of the sport’s hard men, both among fans and his fellow riders. And the only thing Jens likes as much as riding his bike is talking about it.

Daryl thought it was the end of the road for him yesterday on the Tourmalet. “I was that messed that I couldn’t even get anything out my pockets, caked in sweat and in the hurt locker.”

- By Daryl Impey

After yesterday’s stage I tweeted “One of the hardest days EVER, EVER! I hope that is my “bad” day”. I thought it may be a good idea of describing to all what I mean by “bad day”. Stage 16 was not the stage to have one and as it turned out, it was. It was a nightmare for me.

We started the race going really fast and once we got over the first mountain, I knew I was in trouble for the Tourmalet that was coming up next. As soon as we hit the bottom I was in trouble and I started sliding backwards through the group. I tried everything from gels to cokes and every bit of food I could find. Nothing, and I mean nothing was helping. My legs were just empty and it felt as if I couldn’t scratch myself if I tried. I got dropped really early on and tried to ride my own tempo but I couldn’t even find something comfortable. Luckily there were 10 guys behind me and Tyler Farrar was driving that group. I pleaded with him to slow down by 1km/hr and he was a legend, he slowed down and we soldiered on. Eventually we did a mad descent and caught another 20 guys and that’s where I stayed for the whole day. I was in big trouble, there were some guys just taking it easy and riding a tempo that put me on the limit. I was that messed that I couldn’t even get anything out my pockets, caked in sweat and in the hurt locker. We also had the worry of the time cut but a couple of guys were asking and because I was that buggered I just kept saying we are ok, even though I didn’t even know what it was or if we even were ok. I just did it to slow them down a fraction. We managed to make it well within the time limit but I honestly thought I was going home on the Tourmalet. I was hanging on so badly it felt as if I was suffering for the win, but it makes it harder when you know it’s not. Haha. So that was the bad day.

Today, was like night and day compared to yesterday. I felt much better and managed to get through the day really easily. Ok, the start was hard but I was never in real difficulty so I think the rest day could have played a part in it. I think my body was in shut down mode and all I needed was a bad day to remind it that we are still at a race. Today there were a few people like I was yesterday and I could only feel sorry for them. It’s amazing how far we have all pushed ourselves so far.

I know Paris is not far and all your comments and messages have definitely lifted my spirits, so thank you. Yesterday was the worst day of my life but I definitely felt a lot of encouragement from everyone back home. It’s gonna be another long one tomorrow and I am sure many of the sprinting teams will be interested in doing something, so it should be a bunch kick and we’ll be giving our all for Gossy.

Now we are on the way to our hotel where we will have a massage and then some dinner. It’s the same routine everyday. All of our guys are still in high spirits and we are all having a good laugh at dinner. All the ingredients are there for tomorrow and Sunday, now let’s hope it all comes together for us.

I still love this race even if it’s hurt like hell and some times you just want it to end but that’s what makes it so special and I know the end is near and it will all be worth it.

Oh and have a look at the Orica-GreenEDGE backstage passeseveryday during the TDF. They are quite amusing and give you a good idea of how the team is run. You can watch them here.

Have fun and thanks for reading.

Daryl Impey

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Photo: James Startt

- By Jens Voigt

OK, let’s tackle the difficult task first. I guess I cannot just write a friendly entry and pretend that nothing happened, right? And that would not be me anyway.

We got the news yesterday night about the case of Franky, around 8.30 at the dinner table. Until then it had been a nice rest day. I mean until then, the only setback was that I could not find the geocache that I had targeted for the rest day. But that problem would soon become irrelevant.

What can I say? We where all shocked and surprised. I did not know what to think and what to believe. The team decided immediately to stop Franky. And now we will wait for the B-sample to be opened.

Since Franky is my friend and as I have said this many times over the years, I will stay on his side and be there for him as a friend should do. Friendship is not only for the sunny days in life but even more important when its pouring rain out there. Maybe I am not as objective and neutral here as I should be, but I can’t help it, I have spent eight years with Franky as a teammate and I can’t see him doing something stupid like that. I am well aware that probably not everybody will agree with my thoughts, but that’s what I wanted to say.

OK, back to bike racing now. We went out there with the same objective as always—to win the team overall classification. And just like any other day in the office, it was up to Popo and me to cover the early breaks. And since there were 40 guys going up the road, we both had to be in there.

We managed to survive the first climb—le Col d’Aubisque—and then things got harder in the Col du Tourmalet and our group split up in bits and pieces. I managed to survive the climb in a good spot and was keeping our team in contention.

But a few corners into the descent George Hincapie, who was with me, had a nasty crash. His whole left side was all scraped up, his elbow, hips, and knee. And his jersey was shredded into pieces on his back. I felt for him—nobody needs a crash like that, period! And after more climbing and suffering and descending as good and as fast as I could I finally finished sixth on the stage and was pretty happy about that and yes—a little proud too.

And since our climbers fought hard in the group with the yellow jersey we managed to put Haimar Zubeldia into fifth place in the general classification and gained a few more precious minutes in the overall team competition.

For the team classification the team gets rewarded on the podium before the sign-in the next morning. We get these little fluffy stuffed teddy bears. I already have already three of them but I am aiming at four of them so I can bring one teddy bear home for each of my daughters. I reckon the boys are over the teddy bears, no?

And on a purely personal level, I was happy to get to the finish line without crashing because this stage was sort of my nemesis. I crashed the first two times I descended the Aubisque and one was pretty bad. And then in 2010 my front tyre exploded and I crashed on the descent of the Peyresourde and finished the Tour with one or two broken ribs and a few stitches in my elbow.

So my real personal goal of today was to overcome my fear and again be in control of my destiny. And I can happily announce that I achieved that today.

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Monday’s crazy-hard stage, the ‘rest day’, the monster stage today and why this race gets the respect it deserves!

- By Daryl Impey

Ok I think its time for me to start respecting this race a bit more. Stage 15 was one of the hardest starts I have ever had in my life before. I started right near the front and, as we hit “KM 0″ I went straight from the front to the back where I stayed for the next 40km. It was twisty, up and down and in single file. I eventually got my way to the front and tried to get into a move as I thought everyone was tired by that stage but all I did was put myself back into the red zone. Thank goodness those 5 got away and things settled as I was in a lot of pain and suffering at that point. In the morning I thought “not long till we get to Paris” but in that moment I was even wondering whether I would see Paris. I got through the day and Lotto wanted us to ride because they wanted a sprint but we said no, none of us were feeling great and it was maybe time they took control like we did 2 days before without any help and they reaped the rewards.

Well yesterday’s rest day was really nice and I got a chance to sleep in and also catch up on an afternoon nap. I also did a 2.5hr ride as I have learnt from the Giro that 30mins on the rollers was just not enough, I paid for it the next day. So I did a longish ride with a couple of efforts and finished off with 15mins on the rollers to get a real sweat going. At this point I don’t want my body to get into the recovery mode as it will take a long time to get out of it.

I feel really sorry for my roomie Brett Lancaster who crashed a few times in the Tour and was forced to abandon the day before the rest day. It was unfortunate that the start was so hard as we will miss him in the lead out this year but I am sure his glute will recover from the crash (poor guy was basically riding with one leg). What a top guy he is, always sacrificing for the team.

greenedgecycling.com

To everyone who read my blogs and post messages of support to me and Orica Greenedge, thanks very much. It is really appreciated and keeps me going. Today we have the Tourmalet, Col d Aubisque, Col d’Aspin and Col de Peyresourde which is going to a thrilling race to watch between the GC contenders. Maybe some kinks in the armour today, we’ll see how kind the rest day has been to everyone. I have attached a picture of what I have been staring at all morning for you guys, enjoy!

Daryl Impey

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Bicycling | Bicycling

Today’s stage was hard right from the start. But that wasn’t much of a surprise—the course was constantly rolling with 2,000 metres of climbing and everybody wanted to be in the breakaway. The attacks just didn’t stop.

Mentally I was ready. But my legs were not quite as prepared. I reached a whole new level of pain today. And it was perhaps the first time that I couldn’t bridge a gap. “Dammit, I’m actually mortal,” I remember thinking.

Then finally a breakaway got off and it felt like everything stopped and there was a big collective sigh in the peloton.

And guess who won? Pierrick Fedrigo. It’s funny but for the last five years or so, only four or five Frenchmen have won stages in the Tour: Thomas Voeckler, Sylvain Chavanel, Sandy Casar, David Moncoutie and Fedrigo, who now has four stage victories—that guy’s a legend.

Personally, I am very happy about the rest day tomorrow. I feel like a ship that has been taking on water until it reaches port; a rest day is my chance to finally repair some of the damage.

But the good news is that we only have three hard days left: Two mountain stages and a long road stage. After that we just have the time trial—a semi-rest day for me—and the final stage to the Champs-Elysees, which is a high-speed party.

Yesterday I saw a sign that read “917 kilometres to Paris” and I thought, “Hey, that sounds doable!”

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Jens, on Stage 14′s chaos, punctures, and memories.

- By Jens Voigt

I knew today was going to be crazy. Everybody knew that there was going to be a breakaway, and everybody would want to get in it. But there are a lot of tired bodies out there, so just about anything could happen.

And what happens? I pull up to the start and the PA system was blaring “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath. How perfect is that?

Sure enough, there were a ton of attacks. At one point Frank Schleck and Andreas Kloden got caught behind a split and were like one and a half minutes down. It was just one of those “oops” moments—they were in the back saving themselves for the climbs, but with so many tired guys back there, the pack just split in half. They were not at risk of being dropped, but it was just one early example of the day’s craziness.

I also must thank Team Sky for descending the first climb in a reasonable manner so that things didn’t get dangerous.

Later in the stage, on the last climb, everybody started flatting. Later we found out that somebody had put tacks on the road. But at the time we knew nothing. It was just chaos! Cadel Evans flatted. Our team had so many punctures that when I flatted, my mechanic just threw a wheel at me and I had to change it myself—there were others up the road that needed wheels, too. I heard later that one motorbike had 28 tacks in just one wheel!

I mean, what is that? It’s not funny. It’s more than stupid, it’s dangerous. It caused crashes and Robert Kiserlovski even had to abandon after his wreck. It’s just not fair… and for what reason?

And then there was Pierre Rolland, who attacked while the peloton waited for Cadel Evans and the others who flatted. What can you say? Perhaps he didn’t know what was happening the first time he attacked. But he was caught and riders must have told him what was going on. But what did he do? He attacked again! If you know that guys are crashing and puncturing and you take advantage of it—well, that’s just a lack of class!

But the stage is behind us and my team bus is pulling into Toulouse. Oh, does this bring back memories. I moved here in 1998 when I signed with GAN 1 because I needed to live in France and there were already a lot of English speakers in town. It was great.

I showed up in my old Opel Astra with three bikes on the roof and my whole life in the car—my clothes, pots and pans, you name it. Everybody was so welcoming and they took me in. For the first three weeks or so I lived with my Australian friends Stuey O’Grady and Henk Vogels. A couple of times a week our French teammate Fred Moncassin and his wife had us over for a nice hot meal. Later, we realised that another Australian, Jay Sweet, was a really good cook. We would go buy food for him to prepare, and then we would clean up the mess afterward. It was a great exchange. Everybody was helping each other. (About the only thing we didn’t do together was mow the lawn—one day Fred came up and said, “Hey guys it’s a jungle out there and the neighbours are starting to talk.”)

About that time, I had my first big victory—a stage in the Tour of the Basque Country. The weather was just terrible all week and we only had three teammates left at the end. The final day had two stages, a short road race in the morning and a time trial in the afternoon. I was like an hour down so I just attacked from kilometre zero. It worked! I got into the breakaway and eventually won. That’s when I knew I was good enough for this job. Did I think it would ever last until I was 40? No, probably not. But I knew I was onto something.

Wow, what memories! Hello Toulouse!

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