- HOT TOPICS:
- The new VeloNews.com (BETA)
BMC's Scott Nydam, 2008 King of the Mountains, says he's ready for next week's Amgen Tour
- Article Extras
- Photos
- Race Index
Scott Nydam completed not one but two team training camps in preparation for the Amgen Tour of California. The BMC rider, who claimed the 2008 King of the Mountains overall title, attended BMC’s January camp in his adopted state of California. Then he hitched onto the back of his friend Levi Leipheimer’s Astana team camp, based near the Santa Rosa area where both men live.
“The legs are good,” Nydam reported this week. “Training and racing don’t always correlate, but compared to a year ago this time, I’m feeling great. I’ve had 100 percent ideal circumstances for preparation. I haven’t missed a beat all winter.”
His training has been such — including pre-riding stages 1 and 2 of the Amgen Tour at BMC camp — that Nydam hasn’t felt the need to do any local racing to fine tune his engine.
“Scott is riding well,” said BMC director Gavin Chilcott. “I know the details of his training, and he's well prepared. Our American riders got a lot of good European experience in 2008. You'll see the effects of that development in 2009.”
Nydam declined to state his personal goals for the race — “It’s not like Babe Ruth; you can’t call your shots” — but he did say BMC as a team is aimed to step it up this year.
“Last year BMC’s focus was to be very animated, to show that we are here to race. It’s good for the sport, and good for the sponsors,” he said. “This year, instead of being aggressive early, we’re focusing more on the second half of the race. We’re racing for the finish now.”
In 2008, Nydam rode his way into the most aggressive jersey with a day-long solo move. He went clear virtually from the gun, his lead maxing out at 15 minutes, and wasn’t caught until mile 97. The following day, thanks to KOM points he scooped up on his earlier venture, he climbed his way in the KOM jersey. He held it until the Amgen’s Tour finish.
This year the team is shooting for stage wins and the GC. “It is the express goal of management to be top 10 in each race we do this year, whether for the stage or the overall,” he said. “Our goal is to get into the biggest races in the world in 2011.”
Later this spring, Nydam will be doing the NRC circuit in California before heading to Europe for the Tour de Romandie. But first, he’ll be pinning on a number at the Amgen tour along with teammates Markus Zberg, Alexandre Moos, Jeff Louder, Mathias Frank, Thomas Frei, Ian McKissick and Jonathan Garcia.
Email Ben Delaney
