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A conversation with Scott Nydam
Scott Nydam attacked early in the second stage of the Amgen Tour of California last month, spending a long and lonely day off the front of the peloton before being pulled back after 97 miles on his own. For his effort, the 30-year-old Colorado native earned the day's most-aggressive rider jersey and snagged a few climber's points along the way. Not content with that, Nydam joined another long break the next day, inheriting the King of the Mountain jersey from BMC teammate Jackson Stewart (himself an escapee on Stage 1) before being swept up by the overall contenders on Sierra Road.
With Stewart joining yet another break on Stage 4, the BMC team had a lock on the climber's jersey, with Stewart taking the lead in that contest before he dropped out of the Tour suffering from hypothermia. Nydam regained the jersey and protected his lead all the way to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. It was a pleasant bonus for a rider whose sole goal for California was to ride as aggressively as possible. Both Nydam and the team met that goal.
With the Tour of California behind him, Nydam sat down with VeloNews contributor Dirk Friel to discuss the race, the jersey and training with one of the local cycling heroes in his new home town of Santa Rosa, California.
VeloNews: Scott, you won the Mountain points classification for the entire Tour of California. Was this an objective of yours entering the Tour? If not what was your primary goal entering the Tour of California?
Scott Nydam: I've always liked the KOM competition… probably because I'm an impatient rider.
The KOM jersey wasn't the team's nor my primary objective, but it fell in line with our biggest priority, which was to be aggressive throughout the race.
VN: Your BMC team won the most aggressive team award, which is a rarity in itself. What inspired your team to be so active? Did your director mandate each day that your team attack and get represented in the first break of each stage?
SN: The management on BMC doesn't put a lot of pressure on the riders to get huge results. The approach that Andy Rihs is taking toward sponsorship with our team is to have the rider's race clean, smart and aggressive... and then whatever results will come out of that. It's more like there's just a culture of high expectation on the team, rather than directors mandating this-or-that.
VN: There were so many hard stages in this year's Tour. Which stage was the hardest for you to finish and why?
SN: For sure: getting over Sierra Road (on stage 3). I was out of gas, and needed my teammates there just to get me to the line. I probably dug a little too deep establishing and keeping the break going that day. Three of us hung at 30 seconds initially and then it took a bit of work to convince the peloton to stop chancing us.
Then the march down the coast (on stage 4) in the hurricane was just another kind of hard. It is something I really don't know how to explain other than pure, slow, conscious misery. It was definitely a mind game.
VN: You've spent close to two years based out of Levi Leipheimer's home town of Santa Rosa and train a lot with him. Can you tell us how he may have helped you reach a new level as a professional? What is it like training with the best in the world?
SN: If you're honestly trying to become a better cyclist, or a better anything for that matter, just standing next to Levi will make you reconsider 80 percent of the things you do and how you go about doing them. He talks a lot about having everything in order. The more you have in order, the more of yourself you'll have to give to your training.
VN: Now that the tour of California and the base training is over how will your training change?
SN: A lot of the long hard work has been done, so now it will be about refining what has been created. I’ll try to get the high-end sharpened up.
VN: Will you take a break now that the Tour is over, or will you try to tap into your peak form and continue racing the national racing calendar events in California the rest of March?
SN: March actually looks pretty thin. There aren't very many races worth traveling to. But, BMC has the Criterium International and Redlands on the calendar. I'm not sure yet which one (or both) I may be going to, but I'll take a little breather and start to ramp it up again with the Tour of Georgia being the next big objective.
VN: What is your main priority or goal for the rest of 2008 season?
SN: Tour of Georgia, Tour of Romandie, Tour of Utah and probably U.S. Pro Championships.
VN: How meticulous are you about training? Do you download and save a lot of your power files? What type of metrics do you like to follow?
SN: I save every bit of information I can. It may not be so important immediately, but it makes things easier to compare year to year how you're doing, and what you could or should do differently or better.
VN: What is your primary limiter? Do you have a goal to improve any part of your cycling?
SN: I need to figure out my time trial efforts. That's the biggest thing holding me back right now. If you can create a consistent time trial it opens up a lot of opportunity in stage racing.
To view one of Scott Nydam’s recent training files click here and for more on his training click here.
