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Michael Barry's Diary: The season kicks off and we learn the definition of tough
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The season is now fully underway and I now have my first race under my belt: the Tour of California. The race was a triumph for American cycling with massive crowds attending each stage, a world class peloton (likely the best competing at any race in the world at the moment) and a hard fought battle that lasted right up until the penultimate stage.
For us, the cyclists, it was a quality event that was well organized, with good hotels, short transfers, and ideal weather. The racing was tough enough for us to gain fitness and progress while not depleting ourselves too much this early in the year—although perhaps the six Discovery riders that spent the week on the front of the peloton battling the winds and the onslaught of attacks might disagree.
Discovery controlled the race from the start in Sausalito to the finish in Long Beach for their leader, and race leader, Levi Leipheimer. At times they were under stress due to the aggressive peloton that never relented and without the help of Rabobank (on Stage 4) and Health Net (on Stage 6) Levi may very well have lost the race. The racing was exciting and there were few riders that rode complacently in the bunch, for training, showing the race is now am important event on the calendar even for the European based squads.
T-Mobile performed well despite the fact that we didn’t win the stages we were in search of, but placed riders on the podium narrowly missing the victory in all but one of the stages that finished in mass sprints. The team worked well together, never missing a breakaway, and always riding near the front for in the final kilometers to set up our sprinters. We worked as a team; Michael Rogers helped pull the sprints despite his status as a leader, and the sprinters followed the attacks when they didn’t need to save their legs for the final dash to the line. But more than anything else, at dinner, in the bus, and over a coffee the morale was good and we stayed as one.
The size of the crowds at the race was encouraging in the post-Lance era. I think many people in the cycling world feared national interest in the sport would ebb after Lance’s retirement but the enthusiasm for racing seems to be as good as ever. No longer are fans only cheering for Discovery and the Tour de France champions but also for the top domestic teams and the powerful yet youthful, Slipstream Sports. I was encouraged by the support the new T-Mobile program has gained in America as crowds came around our bus each day, many saying they were happy to see a team taking a stand to make a change.
The most astonishing ride of the race was not by a stage winner or the overall winner but by George Hincapie. With a broken arm sustained in a crash earlier in the second to last stage, he fought his way back to the front of the decimated peloton, knowing his teammates were in need of his help and Levi’s lead in yellow very much in jeopardy, to pull for another hundred kilometers. When he began pulling the time gap to the break came down quickly. It was impressive on a physical level but also a mental level as not only did he ride through the pain of a fracture but also completely devoted himself to his team, and their leader.
Tonight I am packing my bags for our trip back to Girona—our second home—and next up is Paris-Nice, a race we still don’t know whether or not we will be starting due to the standoff between our governing body, the UCI and ASO, the organizers of the race. Both parties haven’t backed down in the two years of negotiations and are standing firm. To move cycling forward and hopefully to a similar level attained by most other professional sports, they need to come to an agreement soon.
Cycling is a small minded sport that has yet to realize it’s true potential internationally—with the right structure, organizations and marketing it can easily become a premier sport throughout the North America and throughout the world, as it was in the early part of the 20th century.
